Verisimilitude: Invasion
by Miashin
Summary: Shadow was doing pretty good at getting used to the whole 'quiet life' concept. But peace is not to be. As Mobius is invaded from space while new threats arise from Robotnik, will Shadow stick his neck out for the rest of the world or watch it fall dead.
1. Prologue: Glimpse of a Flashback

Keiji: Kiraa's writing a story. I'm putting it up for him. His notes below. I have nothing else to say.

Kiraa: Hi all, you don't know me but hopefully you will come to like my writing soon enough. This here's my first jump into the fanfic business, but rest assured it is NOT my first ever venture into writing prose. I decided to write this fic in response to the challenge on the main page of a sonadow community and to take away what little free time I still have left. I'm just masochistic like that.

And just because this is my first attempt at fanfiction please do not go easy on me. I'm a big boy and can take some harsh criticism and reviews work better then any of my 'happy pills'. Flames however will be sent to Old Lucifer since I heard he's got some sort of collection hobby for those things.

As for the story itself it's loosely based on the Sonic Adventure games and Sonic X….extremely loosely. Some thing are the same, some are VERY different. Also note that italicized dialogue signifies a character speaking in a different language. This is something I took from the original Japanese versions of Sonic X, in which sonic randomly says things in English. I kind of took that idea and played with it so whenever Sonic says something like "_Of course!_" note the italics and that none of the characters, except for Knuckles and Tails know what he's actually saying. Knuckles knows because he's familiar with the language, Tail's just because he's been around Sonic so long he can get the basic gist of the meaning.

Happy reading!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog, or any of the other character from this franchise. They belong to Sega and the people that created them. This is a work of fan-written fiction by Stari Zmaj studios and is in no way being used to make monetary profits.

* * *

_Prologue: Glimpse of a Flashback  
_  
He was growing to hate this trip. The books had told him of an ancient sanctuary up on these plateaus, but so far he had only found a few ruins and no signs of life. Well no, that statement wasn't wholly accurate. There was plenty of life to be found, in particular of the avian variety. Birds with fantastic plumage could be seen all around and on all levels of the wood. This was by no means a tropical zone, but the bright colorful feathers of these avians were reminiscent of brightly colored rainforest birds. As a matter of fact, in this one little expedition he had already discovered, and recorded for posterity, six new species of paradise birds.

There were also the ruins. In the initial scouting expeditions they had been almost completely missed, but in his detailed search through the wood he had found many ancient stone structures. It was no surprise that the buildings had been easily overlooked, most of them were totally covered with shrub life and dirt to the point that initially they looked like nothing more then oddly shaped hills. Some seemed to even have been built and dug into the ground purposely by their makers. The structures had proved to be a wealth of information, especially those few that he had actually been able to enter. These showed a great technological advancement despite they're obviously ancient origins, technology that could almost stand on par with what was commonplace today.

Still, to the old scientist, the expedition was a let down. He had hoped against all hope to find some living individuals of these ancient cultures. The old books had said that this plateau had been a final refuge and safe haven. That many had fled to hide hear and live in peace. And that communications with these reclused people had continued for hundreds of years after the fact. But it seemed there was no one here now. A sour disappointment, especially after the scout reports had mentioned what could have been a few individuals.

Nothing, there was nothing here except animals and ruins. With a final glance at the thickly grown wood, and deciding that he had gone far enough of the main expedition routs for today, he turned to walk back down the path he had cut through the undergrowth…and froze. Right there on his trail, seeming as surprised at his sudden decision to turn around as he was at seeing it, was…something. At first he thought it was nothing more then a wild animal, but wild animals did not stand on two feet.

For a while the two stared at each other both waiting for the other to make the first move. The doctor couldn't help the smile that spread over his face, causing his overly long mustache to wave with the motion. "Hello…" he said in the most disarming voice he could manage. And with that one word it was gone. He blinked through his glasses, not sure whether he had even seen the creature move, only the rustle of a bush settling back beside where it had stood only a second before marking its passing.

Though the quick disappearance brought a frown at first, his expression transformed back into a smile soon enough. Well it seemed there was at least one person, of questionable intelligence, living here. It wasn't a human though which was no surprise since the books that had led him to this location had only ever mentioned humans in passing, they were far older then the human race. But it was a person never-the-less and a sign that this expedition and all its troubles would bear some interesting fruit if he could find them again.

And he would, he'd damned well make sure he would.

* * *

**Published:** February 5, 2007  
**Last Updated:** December 13, 2007


	2. Chapter 1: Cries in the Night

Kiraa: Yo! First chap, and this is not how I planned to start it. Knuckles wasn't supposed to show up yet! Meh, also a slight change in plans for the little pre-chapter things. I think I'll cover some setting material for the story that you otherwise wouldn't know before turning to actual story material. Also, change in titles, now the whole series is called Verisimilitude.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog, or any of the other character from this franchise. They belong to Sega and the people that created them. This is a work of fan-written fiction by Stari Zmaj studios and is in no way being used to make monetary profits.

* * *

_The History of Mobius_

The written, or at least partially known, history of Mobius is divided into four Eras. Of the First Era little is known, not even how long it lasted, though popular theory and belief has it as the second longest. The only things that remain are a few scattered records of a great disaster and the weeping remains of what must have once been a great civilization on par or surpassing the one of today.

The Second Era was the shortest of all. Marked by one long and bloody war. As of two hundred years ago, the Fourth Era has surpassed it in length.

The Third Era came as a repercussion of the war of the Second. Lasting the longest it was a purgatory of the dark ages.

The Fourth Era begins with the great renaissance, and encompasses the present times.

* * *

_Chapter 1: Cries in the Night_

A little over half a year had passed since the ARK incident. The time had gone bye in a practical blur. People went on with their lives but very few ever stopped to think and appreciate that they could actually do so in the first place. Sonic was still everybody's favorite pet hero, and Robotnik had been unusually subdued, only putting out token attacks just to remind people that; Yes, he was still there.

Obviously it'd be too much to hope that Eggman would have a heart attack/stroke sometime in the night.

Oh and Shadow was dead. Yup, as dead as they come, according to the half year anniversary report that fuzzed out of the radio. With a snort the afore mentioned dark hedgehog pulled the plug on the machine, the power button didn't work, to silence the annoying voice.

One, he wasn't dead.  
Two, they were late. Two weeks late to be precise, to make it for the half year mark, not that he was keeping track or anything. Nope.  
Three, he didn't need to here even MORE about Sonic.

Of course, on point one, nobody was supposed to know the falsity of the fact. Still, numbers two and three, had no excuses. He'd spent the last half year doing a very good job at NOT existing, and it was just about to drive him out of his mind. Not because he couldn't get used to the out of the way life, though boredom had its own issues.

Nope, the toughest part was that the living don't see the dead. Which meant avoiding Sonic, and anybody that knew the hedgehog, like the plague. This odd game of keep away was the one bit of excitement in his life, the only reason to live in Station Square at all. That and when Eggman did make an appearance it made for an interesting show. Like his own private movie theater.

Outside the glassless window the sun's lower edge was starting to sink dangerously close to the horizon line. Night was Shadow's time. At night he could run without worry off people identifying the black streak that was left in his wake. Sure his jets could give him away, but hey it was the risk that made it worth the time.

Yeah, he's life had turned pretty pathetic since ARK. Living on the fringes of Station Square in an old factory turned dump ground certainly was a jump and kangaroo leap from what he had used to have. Oh how the mighty doth fall. But the black hedgehog, as he stretched atop the ripped and torn bean bag that served as his chair/bed, really couldn't bring himself to care. Such things as comfortable living and wealth had never been anywhere near the top of his priorities list.

The sun balanced right atop the horizon now, the sky turning a bloody hue, and the first star appearing in the sky.

…

That wasn't right. Shadow blinked at the star, it was far too early and the sun still far too bright for the stars to be out yet. Just one though, winking down at the world as if it had figured out the great secret to winning the race for the night sky against its other solar siblings.

Shadow made to stand from his resting place, no use looking at mystery stars, time to start heading out and see the world for lack of anything better to do. The screech that pierced his ears though, had him staggering back and into the seat again.

It echoed off the factory walls and, the fact quickly dawned on him, over the whole city. A wail that made the little prehistoric part inside him which remembered scurrying around moldy leaves for worms go "EEK!" and demand to curl up in a tight ball. When its last echo faded Shadow let out a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding.

"The hell.." He wasn't scared, not really, but that sound had set of alarm bells he hadn't known existed in his head. It was primordial, the response to it pure instinct, 'run.' Though where to Shadow's instincts were woefully unable to figure. He walked from the office that had once served as a supervisory station above the factory floor, down the metal railed stairs. Often he'd just jump the gap but the sound had subdued what excitement there had been in him.

He was at the large double front doors when the screech came again. This time it was closer. "It's a hedgehog", Shadow's brain supplied unhelpfully as instinct had him standing ramrod straight in the doorway like a deer caught in the headlights of a speeding bullet train. "A hedgehog that's being de-boned alive in a vat of saltwater" he amended as the cry reached a pitch of desperation that set his teeth on end.

And then it faded into the distance. Shadow stayed under his doorway, listening and waiting. All else in the world seemed to have gone silent, there was even a minimum amount of noise from the rest of Station Square. His ears strained forward, twitching at the slightest noise. The cry came again, but this time it was quite far away.

Again and again the screech pierced the twilight. For a full fifteen minutes it went up and down Station Square, and then moved off into the countryside. Shadow wasn't sad to hear it go. It was a horrid sound, simply because it could elicit that illogical instinctual fear out of him. He didn't like getting scared.

He didn't leave the factory either, not until the twilight had completely faded into dark. Somehow, when he finally set out the night felt far more dangerous and ominous then it used to.

The star that had appeared at the setting of the sun vanished as soon as the other stars began to take their place in the night sky. Not that anybody noticed on that first night.

------------------

_throoooooooooooooo_

Knuckles' eyes opened to a clear night, the quarter moon waxing above him. He blinked a couple times, as his brain was slow to produce coherent waking thought.

_Throooooooooo_

That sound! He sat up from his napping place on the smooth stone steps that led up to the resting place of the Master Emerald. He'd heard that sound before someplace.

_Thvrooooooo_

Standing up, he looked about for its source. It was definitely familiar…and mechanical. Which meant either Sonic or Eggman was coming to pay him a visit, and neither were welcome on Angel Island without a specific invite.

_THVRooooooooo_

Whatever it was, was getting closer fast. And there was a deeper larger rumble behind it. Knuckles' hands pulled up into fists as he continued to search the sky, what familiarity he had with the source of the sound told him that it was airborne. If it was Eggman, Knuckles was ready for 'em, if it was Sonic and he or his machine ended up getting punched through a couple trees…eh, well tough luck for them.

He smirked, hoping it was Sonic. It'd be nice to give him a good punch just for the sake of all the many things he'd promised in time to give him a beating for. It'd also be nice because Sonic, relatively speaking, was an ally and Knuckles would never willingly wish for any enemies to pay him a visit.

_THVROOROOOOOOOOOOOOO!_

He pinpointed the source of the sound, a fast moving speck of dark against the lighter blue of the night sky. The flare of jets could be seen propelling it forward.

The bottom of Knuckles' stomach dropped out; it had a hedgehog shape…with glowing red eyes.

Not eyes, optics.

"No.." even as he voiced the denial he was running up the stairs to put himself between the mecha and its course for the Master Emerald.

Part of him really really wished it was Sonic dressed up in a mecha suit. The other part that had remembered the sound the instant he'd heard it laughed at the foolishness of the idea. Yeah they'd destroyed Metal Sonic, a couple times over.

Rebuilding the monster would explain why Eggman had been quiet for so long.

The mecha was almost to the Master Emerald, not slowing despite the fact that now Knuckles' stood directly in its path. He raised and pulled back his fist. Looked like Eggman had skimped on the intelligence for this version, it was still heading straight forward. His fist slammed home…directly into the after image of the mecha's face half a foot away from him.

"Oh. Chaos Control!" His brain supplied quickly. Not quick enough to defend against the kick that hit him hard in the back of the head and rocketed him away from the Master Emerald and its high seat. He hit the ground hard, snout first, and then bounced onwards flipping in the process to slam his back against a tree. "Ow…"

Not the most intelligent thing he'd ever said, but it fit the situation well enough as he fell back to the ground and onto his knees. Metal Sonic now stood where only a second before Knuckles had been, looking down upon the fallen echidna. The air was still vibrating with the deep brass of a giant machine approaching their location.

Knuckles' didn't have the luxury to look and see what kind of monstrous new flying thing of mass panic and devastation Eggman had come up with this time, Metal Sonic had turned away from him and was reaching for the Master Emerald.

"No you don't!" Knuckles shouted, scrambling to his legs and leaping, one of his best ever jumps, he'd reflect later, for the mecha with an outstretched fist. The thing looked over its shoulder, just as he reached midway through his leap and vanished. He knew what would come next, but not from where, which meant that he had no way from defending against the kick that landed right at the small of his back.

Knuckles grit his teeth, but the mecha wasn't finished yet. Its jets burned, propelling it, and Knuckles under foot, downward straight into the ground. This time the echidna did cry out, the ground underneath him cracked from the force of the impact, and he fancied for a minute that he'd heard his spine do the same.

He was pinned, looking up he saw the light of the stars and moon vanish, blocked out by a large flying machine. Eggman's insignia was emblazoned on its side with garish glow-in-the-dark-neon yellow-green. He glared up at the mecha that held him down, laying a couple choice curses on its head. The Sonic look alike's eyes seemed to narrow, and before Knuckles knew what was happening pain arched across his entire body.

Electricity, he'd know in hindsight, the blasted thing had run a however many volt electric current through him. He didn't know for how long, but at some point it must have gotten tired of his twitching and screaming as it leaned down and delivered a solid punch to the back of his head.

It didn't knock him out immediately, but he sure as heck wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. The mecha lifted its foot of him just as the giant Eggman flying thing shot what seemed to be its entire arsenal at the Master Emerald. Positioned as he was, with his head facing to the side towards the Master Emeralds dais, he could see quite clearly through a single blurry eye the missiles and lasers head for and in the next instant land a direct strike at the emerald.

He wanted to scream, in rage or panic he didn't know, as the shots landed. Above him the mecha beeped in alarm. The explosion was deafening, raining debris and dust down upon the two figures below, but Knuckles' didn't dare close his eyes. Not when he could see the light of the Master Emerald shatter, scattering in a bright arc, over the trees, some embedding themselves into the bottom of the flying machine and others sailing off to nowhere across the trees.

The emerald was shattered. Shock dragged him down, out of reality into unconsciousness, toward guild ridden dreams. He'd failed, the Master Emerald was broken…he couldn't lose now. He tried to wake himself. He had to get these bastards back, had to punch a hole through Eggman's gut, had to rip Metal Sonics head straight off its metallic shoulders.

Blackness claimed the corners of his sight as the rest of reality seemed to focus on a pin point of tunnel vision straight ahead. He fancied he could hear yelling, angry yelling at that. As the final wisps of consciousness left him it was with the sound of a long horrid wailing screech, which was quickly joined by another even more bestial one.

----------------------

It had been a little over a month since the wailing had started. Every dusk and dawn it come. Running up and down Station Square, frightening all the citizens. A sound of horrid torture and pain…and nobody ever saw what made it.

Shadow had stopped wandering at night. Every rustle and twitch of movement had him grasping for his Chaos Emerald, and reaching for that power inside. Worst of all, for whatever reason, the Chaos Emerald was no longer reliable. His mind flashed back to when a guard dog had startled him and he'd attempted to Chaos Control out of the immediate area.

He'd ended up fifty feet in the air…above the ocean. Definitely NOT where he had been wanting to go. Since that time the Emerald had become increasingly more erratic. Sometimes shooting of sparks of chaos energy like it was some odd malfunctioning appliance and other times dimming to such a dark green that it looked like a painted rock.

Shadow didn't trust his life on the Emerald anymore. Next time, for all he knew, it might drop him over a meat grinder.

Admittedly, ever since the shrieking had started, his mind had taken a distinctive turn toward the macabre. Only something horrid could make a hedgehog scream like that, right? Of course, that was another contingency point he had with himself. How did he know it was a hedgehog, for all anyone could identify the sound it could be a rusty tire (which a lot of 'science' people had suggested on the radio) that is, something completely not alive. No, Shadow didn't know it was a hedgehog, but that's what his instincts told him. He tended to trust those instincts. He'd learned, during the course of the ARK incidents, that those instincts often knew best.

He didn't sleep much anymore either. The wailing had brought on fresh dreams of Maria and the events that happened on ARK. He'd end up waking, ready to pull his spines out in frustration from not being able to do anything, back then and now.

Right now, in fact, Shadow observed from the top of his factory the rebuilding and cleaning of Station Square. It was taking doubly as long as usual. Nobody wanted to be out and about at night. Whenever the wailing started all else would be dropped until the sound finished its routine the next morning. Shadow thought it was ridiculous, as if the sun could scare away whatever was making the noise, though he himself was also staying put at night.

But he was more scared of what would make somebody scream like that, then the one doing the screaming.

As for the rebuilding. A fifty foot tidal wave had flooded station square only two days after the wailing had started. It was kind of interesting, he mused, that everything was now timed for how long it'd been since the twilight noises beginning.

Of course the tidal wave had the kind courtesy of coming in just when Shadow was pulling himself to shore after his failed Chaos Control. It was a good thing he was a very fast hedgehog, the idea of revisiting the salty brine, and this time getting beaten around Station Square by the water, hadn't sat well with him.

There was no loss of life to the wave. Somehow the government had known very far in advance that it was coming, and had evacuated the endangered areas. The cause? It seemed Angel Island had fallen into the sea, the wave had taken only five hours to reach the mainland from there. The evacuation had started seven hours before the wave reached land.

Nobody else seemed to notice how the math was off on that part.

A dark rumble drew his gaze from the town up to the sky where gray and angry clouds were moving in from the ocean. Hurricane Lati, the radio had said it was called. Shadow just snickered. When it rained it sure poured. He could just HEAR the JOY of the Station Square residents at the prospect of MORE water. Yay.

Well he had no room to talk, he'd had to move his stuff to a first floor office on the inside of the building cause his preferred hide-away hole happened to have very big and very glassless windows.

The leading edge of the clouds was colored a bloody red as the sun sank towards the horizon. The first star flashed in the sky. Shadow stood from his seat and was closing the trapdoor up to the roof just as the first wail rose over the city.

The star. There had been plenty of talk about that on the radio too. Yes Shadow liked his radio, it kept him in touch with the rest of the world. It hadn't taken long for people to draw a correlation between 'the screecher,' as the waling had been dubbed, with the odd star that came out before all the others and vanished as soon as the true first start, appeared in the sky.

The first clue was the fact that the same day the star became first visible in the sky the wailing had started. Another point was that the wailing lasted only as long as the star was visible, and as soon as it vanished so did the sound.

Of course, everybody with even a 10 cent telescope had trained their eyes on the star once the word began to spread. Turns out it was not a star at all. Instead it was a moon/planet (debate was still up on that one) who's very wide orbit was leading it towards Mobius. What amazed everybody was the speed at which the object was moving. Faster then even a comet, it was practically the 'Sonic' of space.

It would join Mobius in its orbit around the sun in a month, circle the sun a couple times in the next two, then join the moon in orbit around Mobius for three, before the process would be repeated in reverse and it would float off into space again.

Cue to the doomsayers and apocalypse prophets. Shadow hadn't even touched his precious radio in the last couple days because of their rantings. HE had almost destroyed the world and somehow he couldn't see how a space rock whose course scientists had already plotted could do any better then he did.

In the future he would note to himself that he should NOT tempt fate.

* * *

**Published:** February 5, 2007  
**Last Updated:** December 13, 2007 


	3. Chapter 2: Dreams of Disaster

Kiraa: 'Lo folks. Some people asked for longer chapters. How's this? It's all Shadow in this chapter, but that'll change by the next one. Yup, Sonic finally makes a proper appearance in chapter 3.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog, or any of the other character from this franchise. They belong to Sega and the people that created them. This is a work of fan-written fiction by Stari Zmaj studios and is in no way being used to make monetary profits._  
_

* * *

_The First Era of Mobius_

The First Era of Mobius is the most mysterious division of the planet's history. It is unclear, beyond creationist legends, when the era began, and its identifying feature is the great technological advancement of its people. Who these people were is unknown, though recent research has suggested the Echidna. The one thing that is for certain is that they were neither avian, serpent, or human. All three had their glory days in different era's and in the case of the avians and serpents their records constantly refer back to the race of the First Era.

What remains of the First Era today are scattered ruins of once grand cities. Beyond that the only other information that exists of this time period are either legends passed on orally, or what the people of the second era wrote. Neither source is very complete or trustworthy.

One thing that scientists know a great deal about, and thus the most well recorded part of the era, is its end. Every story, though they all are slightly different, mentions a dark star that rained chaos upon the world and brought a great plague that destroyed the people of the first Era.

Notably, such places as Mystic Ruins, and the fabled Angel Island are remnants of this time period.

* * *

_Chapter 2: Dreams of Disaster_

_He was humming a happy tune, leafing through the pages of a book that his dream self didn't have the intelligence to read. But there were lots of pictures, which kept him entertained enough._

Shadow knew it was a dream as soon as it began. That happened sometimes. The dreams in which he's running with Maria to escape G.U.N. erase reality and he truly believes it's happening all over again. The other dreams he has of ARK are like this. His dream self in one corner of their mind, the rest of him fully aware of what's going on in the other.

He didn't like the set up. He should have, remembering the times when he and Maria used to be happy would have been nice. Inevitably, though, there'd be a wrinkle in the dream, a point where Maria or he would do or say something that had his more conscious mind screaming that things would never happen like that. He or Maria would never behave like that. The wrinkles marked where old Robotnik had corrupted his memory, and for that he hated these dreams.

Show a starving a guy a steak and then throw it to a spoiled poodle, that's what it felt like to Shadow.

Most jarring at times was the constant cheer of his dream self. The thought that he had ever been that happy, it was almost embarrassing in the fact that he neither felt or remembered ever feeling like that.

The door to his room…no, their room slid open. And already there was a wrinkle. He and Maria had never shared a room, why were there two beds here? Another wrinkle, Maria walked in with her head cast down looking at sheets of large papers in her hand. She seemed to be very concerned by what ever was on them, her delicate face drawn in a frown.

Of course dream Shadow wasn't as perceptive as that. "What'cha reading?" Shadow flinched at the innocence of his own voice as his other self stood up and walked to Maria's bed where she now sat looking at the papers. Shadow could still see through the eyes of his dream self, at the same time he was standing in front of and looking at both the figures. Funny how things could work like that in dreams.

"Maps." Was Maria's far too serious reply. Dream Shadow looked at the topmost paper over her shoulder, but didn't see anything 'mapy' about them. Conscious Shadow did. The paper was white and all over it were black dots, each labeled by either a name or a series of numbers and letters. Some labels appeared multiple times and Shadow recognized it to be a star map.

Another wrinkle, Maria would never be looking at these things.

"Why?" Dream Shadow asked, and Shadow himself was curious since this dream was new, in the sense that he'd never had it before. Maria lifted a small thin hand to point with a finger at a series of three dots. They were all labeled with the same series of numbers. "That." She answered simply.

Dream Shadow was confused. What was so special about dots on paper?

Shadow himself understood. Star maps were made by layering multiple images, usually three or more, one over the other. Stars that appeared in different locations on each image were then obviously moving objects that had changed their positions in space during the time gap between images. The three that Maria pointed out had an unusually large amount of distance between them. In fact they took up the whole paper, starting with the first on the bottom left corner, one in the center, and one on the top right corner. Either there was a very long time gap between when these images were taken, or it was an impossibly fast moving object for its size.

"What is it?" Dream Shadow asked, ever curious.

Maria looked up and her eyes were not her eyes. The dream turned confused, as if Shadow was looking at a double negative, the two images overlapping each other. He was waking up, he could feel it, and Maria's voice raced him to reality.

"Those that you must destroy."

Shadow shuddered awake. Well that dream had been better then the other ones he'd been having recently. There's only so much blood even he could take before his already questionable sanity started slipping.

It was dark, somehow he'd completely slept through the dusk round of wailing. That or the shrieker had decided to give its voice a rest.

That didn't mean there weren't other things to set his hearing on edge though. For a moment he thought he could hear the oddly familiar whirring of mechanical movement, the stomp of large limbs connecting with the ground and against the building's wall. Sounds that had drawn him out of his sleep.

He didn't shift an inch even though his right hand was pinned uncomfortably underneath him, lest he himself cover up what noise there was. Conveniently he'd fallen asleep facing towards the window, where the world glistened in the moonlight from the evening dew. There was silence now, but he thought he caught a glimpse of movement out in the trash heaped courtyard.

Before another thirty seconds had ticked by he was out of the room and down by the doors. The factory was his turf, and as unreasonable as it was he didn't like the idea of somebody sneaking around in it. He especially didn't care for intruders if they were robotic. Robots generally weren't associated with good things in his mind. That aside, only the insane were out at night, situation being what it was.

He looked out at the trash heaped courtyard and saw nothing. That wasn't comforting at all to his instincts though, more then a few alarm bells were going off up there. His ears twitched. Was that the wind or the muffled hiss of hydraulics? Maybe discretion would have been the better part of valor, but Shadow was far too proud sometimes and this was HIS place. He walked out of the building, ready for anything, but not making any effort to hide himself.

The noise of metal against stone made Shadow whip around to look behind him when he was only ten feet from the door. The was an odd looking mecha, some kind of mix between spider and scorpion, clinging to the wall and bodily blocking the entrance to the factory. Its form was distinctly bulbous and spider-like, a missile pod sat on its back, above which curled a scorpion tail with a gun instead of a stinger. And two pincers, with saw blades on the insides, were clasping and unclasping in front of it.

Right, a mecha, nothing he hadn't dealt with before, no matter it's new model looks. He was more concerned with the fact that it had probably been sitting just above the doors and he hadn't noticed it. Shadow prepared to spin-dash the thing to oblivion, couldn't let such an insult go could he, but a flash of light to his left had him leaping back and to the right by instinct.

What do you get for being generally well behaved and staying out of everybody's way for a good half year? Most kids got presents, but if you were Shadow the Hedgehog you got missiles. But these weren't the "Oh hey, here have these and blow stuff up." kind of missiles, nope, they were more like the "FUCK, It's coming straight for me!" kind. It was just such a missile that exploded in a glorious blaze where Shadow had been only a fraction of a second before.

No time to watch the pretty fires, the flashes of more jets and the whistling air told him more missiles were enrout. He dashed behind the gutted remains of a buss for some cover, then thought better of it and rolled away from the vehicle just as the missiles impacted with it, sending the empty hull rolling and bouncing on the ground as an interesting fire ball display. Shadow noted that it left quite a messy groove right where he had thought to hide behind it. Instincts 2, mecha 0.

Of course, he didn't have a chance to celebrate for long. The noise of hydraulics signaled the appearance of another spider/scorpion mecha right in front of him as he pulled out of his roll. He grinned, getting ready spin-dash this one. It was too close to use its missiles on him so he thought he had an open shot for it. Not so proved the machines as it lifted its tail above the missile pod and shot a broad laser at him. With a curse Shadow was again forced to leap back. He was in the now cleared space where the bus had been…with five spider/scorpion mecha surrounding him. A sixth, or the first depending on which way one was counting, still blocked the entrance to the factory.

"Ho, ho, ho, ho!" Shadow resisted the urge to cover his ears and role his eyes. Eggman's laugh was on par with the wailing, but of a holly different sort of horrid. Horridly annoying.

The little TV that was the fat man's way of communicating long distance, and an excuse NOT to move his big heavy butt, hovered above the courtyard turned battlefield. His brightly mustached face leered through the screen, looking down at Shadow with no small amount of glee.

"Well, well, well. The dead do walk! You're not going to groan for brains or fresh meat are you?"

Shadow could be a very restrained hedgehog, he proved it right then by NOT flipping Eggman off. There went his little illusion of being dead, what a bad night. "What do you want Robotnik." He refused to actually call the man something as childish as Eggman out loud, no matter how appropriate the title. He got the feeling that the fat guy actually got a kick out of the name and Shadow refused to be any aid to that, especially when he was more concerned with how the old coot knew he was alive and why he was being attacked in the first place.

"Well a little birdie told me that an old friend of mine, that I thought dead, actually wasn't. So I came to see for myself."

"With an army of Mecha? I suppose their here to carry the 'get well soon' pie." Shadow laced his voice with as much sarcasm as possible, something he was actually quite good at. He also made a mental note to track down 'the little birdie' and make it squeak its last. He shook his head. "Why are you REALLY here."

Eggman didn't even flinch at the sarcasm or the brisk tone that followed it after. "Little birdie also told me you had a Chaos Emerald, which I do believe my scanners are now confirming."

Shadow gritted his teeth, resisting the urge to reach back into his quills to make sure the emerald was still there. He also amended his note to introduce the birdie to the screecher and if at all possible to whatever made the screecher screech. Torture could be so much more satisfying then simple outright murder. "So?" he said crossing his hands in front of him, he had no intention of losing his cool, not in front of Eggman.

Now Robotnik frowned, obviously Shadow wasn't playing along to whatever plan he was weaving.

"Give it."

"Try 'Please.'"

Eggman was quiet for a second. "Give it…pleeeeaaaaase."

Okay, that earned itself a raised eyebrow. He hadn't expected for Robotnik to actually acquiesce to his request. "No."

And suddenly the grin was back, as if the old coot had been hoping for that response all long, probably had. Either way, Shadow wasn't giving up his emerald, no matter how useless. It was his damn it.

"ATTACK!"

The mechs had slowly been narrowing their circle, and now they rushed forward, their scorpion pincers open and aiming to cut through Shadow. The saws he had sighted earlier were now buzzing and whirring with laser energy, as if metal alone just couldn't get the job done properly. Despite the uneven odds, now Shadow had the advantage as they were all to close to use either their lasers or missiles, and their front limbs just weren't as fast as he was.

With a leap he flipped backwards, onto the missile pod of the mecha behind him. Now out of its pincer range, the mecha directly across from him automatically aimed its laser. Shadow dashed forward in a spin, before the beam struck, causing the missile pod he'd been standing on to explode while his spin took him straight through the center of the mecha that had fired the killing shot. That one was quick to explode as well.

As soon as he pulled out of his spin it was to realize that another mecha was coming at him from his right side, pincers saws buzzing. He leaped over the striking limbs landing a kick on the robots head that crushed the metal underneath his foot. The robot began to malfunction shooting its laser in random directions, almost taking out the little floating Eggman TV. It did take out the mecha that blocked the entrance to his factory though, causing that one to go up in another billow of glorious flames. Shadow ended the damaged machine's plight then with a spin-dash through the head.

Instincts 2, Shadow 4, mecha 0; maybe it wasn't such a bad night after all, only two enemies left. The two mecha, which had been making a charge stopped as soon as he turned towards them. For a second they stalled then one took a cautious step back. In the next instant it was a full blown retreated, the mecha scrabbling over the decaying wall of the courtyard to escape from him.

Oooookay, robots that valued self preservation, that was new. "That's it?" Shadow turned derisively toward the still floating TV screen. What? Had Eggman thought that Shadow would have gotten weaker or something? Bringing only six mecha, he almost felt insulted by the lack of effort. The fat scientist didn't seem to be bothered by his losses though, in fact, his sneer had only grown in size.

What felt like ten tons of brick hit the back of Shadow's head without a single bit of warning, sending him rolling forward along the ground till he crashed into the abandoned carcass of what had once been a washing machine. And 'into' truly meant just that; neither the metallic side of the machine or a great deal of its insides could withstand the impact, leaving the black hedgehog in a small washing machine sized crater.

Shadow recovered quickly enough though, pulling himself out of the appliance and ready to face whatever had attacked him. The blow had been stunning, but he'd felt worse before. Above the little Egg TV floated with Eggman snickering happily too himself.

As Shadow glanced around the yard he could see nothing of what had struck him. A mecha couldn't possibly vanish that fast, could it? Right then he really wished he could Chaos Control. Not only could he avoid getting hit by a surprise attack again, which was the only possible goal his enemy could have by going back into hiding, he'd skewer whatever the thing had been with a couple well placed rounds of his chaos lance.

He felt wetness trickle down the back of his head and neck. Blood? He reached behind and touched the back of it where he'd been struck, it felt sore but not injured. When he pulled his hand back it was thankfully NOT covered in blood. What'd he get hit with then, water from a fire hose?

Something, instinct, attracted his attention to the right, just in time to duck a large claw that had been aiming for his head..again. A large claw which, surprise surprise, was made of water. Like a whip the extended limb curled back around, and again the claw was coming for him. He tried to leap up and away but the thing curled again and took hold of one of his legs.

Tugged along by monsters strength he was slammed and dragged across the ground as the clawed hand reeled him in back to its owner. Something gurgled and towered over him. Lifting his snout from the earth and spitting out dirt Shadow looked over his shoulders to see…

Blue with green eyes and it WASN'T Sonic, more like a blob of water trying to cosplay as the other hedgehog.

The thing made a grab for the emerald held in his spines. "Oh HELL no!" He twisted on the ground, wrenching his foot out of the monsters claw and in the same move kicking his other foot into its knee. The monsters leg bent under blow like jello, bouncing back and only causing it to lean to the injured side slightly, staggering at the loss of balance.

Shadow growled and made a bid for freedom. The things arm shot out again, making another grab for his legs. He rolled to the side to avoid the strike and hopefully get some cover behind a nearby pile of molded furniture. Before he made it though, the limb once again twisted mid-air cutting off his path and forcing him to stop his roll short and stagger back. The monster's second limb had by then also shot forward, and now landed a direct hit on his head and neck, covering his muzzle with its palm.

He kicked and punched at the limb, but just like before the water gave way and bounced back with every blow. The grasp on his head was solid, but even worse was the fact that with water covering his mouth and nose he couldn't breath.

"Ho ho ho ho! How do you like my new toy Shadow. His name is Chaos and he's the true Ultimate Lifeform."

Shadow would have LOVED to make a snarcky comment back, lack of air and water covering his breathing passages made that kind of difficult though. The creature had pulled him back towards itself, the hand around his mouth held him up while the other ran through his spines and finally pulled out the Chaos Emerald. It stared at the brightly glowing green stone with something akin to hunger then finally threw it up towards the Egg TV which grabbed the jewel with a robotic hand that emerged from a hole at its bottom.

But Chaos didn't let go of him…his struggles were starting to grow weaker. Desperately he tried to hold his mouth closed against the ever increasing urge to breath. The arm around his muzzle bubbled when instinct took over forcing his mouth open. There went that perfect victory record.

The thing seemed to give him a pitying look as he breathed water instead of air and his vision began to darken. All he could hear was the rushing of blood in his ears, or was it the water in his lungs? Vision and his sense of reality began to fade out.

Just behind the veil of dissolving reality he imagined he hear a low, sad, song.

----------

He felt rather pathetic when he woke up. Almost immediately he started coughing, remembering the feeling of water filling his lungs. But the water was already gone, though his lungs still gurgled with every breath.

Sitting up on his hands and knees he took a couple well appreciated gulps of air, before looking around. Nothing, the area still showed signs of the battle, but there was nothing left of Robotnik, his pet monster, or the mecha. Not even the remnants of the robots he'd destroyed remained. All that was left was a nice burn scar from the mad mecha's laser on the factory walls and the charred circular patches of ground where the destroyed machines had burned.

There was a distinct empty feeling between his spines where the Chaos Emerald had been only a short while before. Glancing towards the sky he judged it was less then an hour before dawn. His head where Chaos had struck him felt like it had bloated overnight and the leg he'd wrenched out from the monsters claws throbbed from the gouges that its talons had cut into the flesh in the movement. Painful injuries, but as long as it wasn't a concussion or broken bones he could deal.

With a groan he stood up. His fur was wet all over, from Chaos and the morning dew, and he shivered involuntarily. Once again he took a second to appreciate AIR. Then he shook himself and put his mind to the problems at hand.

Robotnik knew he was alive, and somebody else knew too, and had passed the information along to Eggman. Looked like it was time to revive the old "To Kill" list. That aside, he was now Chaos Emerald-less, though considering that the one he'd been holding on to was practically dieing maybe that wasn't such a bad thing. Fortunately he knew just where to get another Emerald.

Maybe he should rest and recover first? He knew that the bump on his head wasn't all that bad, even if it felt overly large. And an inspection of the gouges on his leg proved that they had stopped bleeding a long time ago, were small and shallow, and weren't going to slow him down all that much. Forget rest, no time like the present.

It was cutting it close though, but hey, maybe the wailing would cover his theft. He set out at a run from his factory and across Station Square, well a run to anybody else a jog to him. His jets kicked in automatically and he was soon speeding towards the National Art Museum. Hopefully their Chaos Emerald would be a little more functional.

The actual theft was pathetically easy. Yeah sure, alarms went off but nobody was going to come out before the shrieker said goodbye to the night. And even if anybody had appeared it wasn't as if they could have caught him anyway.

Shadow took a slower path home. Now that he was out and about he was actually kind of curious if anything WOULD happen once the wailing started. Besides, staying cooped up in that place had gotten tiresome a long time ago. Robotnik also knew of his hiding hole now, and he'd been dealt a rather bitter defeat there. To say that he wasn't all that eager to get back was an understatement. Any excuses to stay away for a little longer was a good one. He settled himself down in the Station Square park, waiting for the dawn noise to start as he looked at Mobius' new neighbor.

The planet was now a clear and constant object in the night sky, though the shrieker kept to its dawn and dusk routine. Today the planet would pass whatever mathematical marker the space people had set up for it and be officially considered as part of the sun's orbit.

Dawn came…and there was no sound. The whole world held its breath waiting for the terrible noise that had plagued it for over a month.

Silence. Nope, no shrieker, not even a whistle of the thing. Shadow felt almost disappointed. With a "Che," he stood from the ground. Tossing his new, bright purple, Chaos Emerald up and down in one hand. Well, looked like it was time to go home, and already he was looking for a new excuse to stay out. A speeding streak of blue drew his attention to one of the taller buildings in the city. It ran right up the structures side and resolved itself into a tiny blue shape, well it was more of a dot from this distance, but Shadow recognized it never the less. How many other fast blue shapes were there in the world?

Seemed, Sonic was still alive too. It'd been weeks since he'd last caught site of the blue hedgehog. For a moment he considered heading on over and ever so casually informing the hedgehog that Robotnik was out looking for Chaos Emeralds again. He dismissed the idea just as quickly. Sonic probably would be far too curious to know why Shadow had the Chaos Emerald from the Art Museum. Or too excited about the fact that Shadow was alive at all.

Nope, Sonic could figure out what was happening on his own. If he hadn't already, what with Angel Island taking an ocean plunge and all.

A high pitched whistling began to arc through the sky. He looked up so fast his neck gave a protesting pop, almost expecting to see MORE missiles. But no, he was instead greeted by bloody red clouds. And these clouds weren't red because of the sunrise.

They spun overhead, pulling ever closer the ground, and Shadow watched with a mix of wonder and horror as a bloody tornado touched down on the opposite side of the park. It wasn't alone though, he could see far away another tornado touching down on the grassy plains of the landlocked side of Station Square. And Sonic, he turned back to the direction he'd been originally facing, was making a point of avoiding a third tornado and running as far away from the things as fast as he could.

Well don't see that everyday, Sonic the Hedgehog a coward? Shadow had always known that one had been an old fake.

Then the chaos fell. It was almost a physical wave that rushed down from the sky and forced him to his knees. He felt like a rat caught in a snakes gaze, frozen or hypnotized, but either way completely unable to move as the chaos energy twisted and twined in the air around him. He slowly turned to look back at the closest tornado behind him. The black chaos energy seemed to be coming from its swirling center.

Until that point the tornado had been only clouds, but now the chaos energy provided its accompanying wind. But it felt like no chaos energy he'd encountered before. It was dark, just dripping with vileness that, although he couldn't actually see it, seemed to want to stick to him like a leech. There was a soundless roar in the air, and without knowing when he'd done it, Shadow found himself curled up in his tightest ball ever. Around him the trees bent away from the tornado's, a couple of the weaker ones snapping and crashing to the ground. Smaller objects which didn't have a solid connection with the ground were picked up by the non-existant wind and sent flying. Coming from the direction of the city he could hear even more damage being done, the scrapings of metal, the shattering of glass, and crying of many alarms.

He was terrified, more terrified then the wailing had ever made him and on that same base instinctual level. All he could do against the ingrained fear was lie there and wait for the storm to pass. Though it felt like over an hour that didn't actually take long. The tornados barely lasted ten minutes and when they finally dissipated away, the red clouds vanishing as suddenly as they had appeared, they left a rotten taste behind in the air.

Breathing like he'd just circuited the world three times Shadow staggered to his feet as soon as he could. The Chaos Emerald in his hand glowed like a Magnesium flame and every cell in his body was telling him to get the fuck away from that area. He turned, intending to do just that.

A monster stood in his way.

It looked almost like Chaos. Except it was considerably larger, solid flesh, big muscle…and it had a gun trained on him. Sure it didn't look like any gun he'd ever seen before, but he recognized the general shape well enough. Usually he would have smirked, guns didn't scare him, but he couldn't summon the emotion to do that now. The thing dripped the same disgusting chaos energy that had ripped through the area only seconds earlier.

He took a step backwards, away from the creature. It barked an order, in some odd guttural language that sounded like it was trying to cough phlegm out of its throat and that Shadow couldn't understand. He didn't want hang around long enough to figure out it's meaning either. He raised the Chaos Emerald that was making a very good imitation of a halogen lamp and the creature took a staggering step back.

He felt the familiar surge of power that was the mark of Chaos Control as the emeralds own chaos energy seemed to fall upon the alien energy that still clung to him like a buzzard on a fresh kill, eating up that vileness and adding it to itself. With a crackling snap of energy and pop of air he vanished from in front of the monster.

For a second, while in that purgatory of Chaos Control he breathed a sigh of relief. SAFE! And apparantly jinxed. As soon as that thought crossed his mind something dark rushed up and grabbed a hold of the string of chaos energy that was teleporting him. With a noiseless cry he was thrust back to reality…in the center of an armed encampment of the creature from which he had just escaped. They all had weapons trained on him.

It was like one of those messed up nightmares where you keep running and running but the monster kept coming right after you. Except the monster had managed to catch Shadow. Legends said that if you get caught in your dreams you'd die, he was pretty sure the reality would follow the same route.

Not that he showed it, heck no. Holding the Chaos Emerald tightly in his hand, the creatures seemed to have an aversion to its light, he stood up and glared at them. No fear…not until he saw the floating…octopus eye ball thing at least.

It went almost unnoticed among the energies of all the other monsters. And perhaps that's what was so frightening about it, the fact that it could blend in so well, yet when Shadow searched for it he could feel an undertone of…eternity. There was no end to the power within this things grasp. He recognized it too, this was what had pulled him out of his Chaos Control, something he hadn't even known was possible.

One of the monsters was talking to him in their phlegm filled language. Shadow grimaced at it. He felt like he was being questioned though hell if he knew what the questions were. The floating eyeball thing seemed to know this and laugh. Finally it floated between him and what Shadow assumed was the leader of these forces, it looked different from the rest and tougher too despite being easily less than half the size then the 'grunts'. The two spoke for a while and then the eye turned its gaze on him.

Shadow had almost managed to hedge his way to the edge of the circle, there was a nice gap which he KNEW he could get through before anything made a shot or grab for him if he could just get close enough to it. He'd already decided that jumping wasn't an option, they were in a clearing with no trees close enough to jump too and, worst of all, there were even MORE 'things' flying in the air. The eyeball barked an order and the gap was closed. "Che…" he first glared at the monsters that had blocked it then at the eye-ball.

It laughed again. Shadow only caught a glimpse of one of its tentacles whipping out towards him, but it was enough to duck the attack. Three more came at him and he dodged two of them by leaping back. The third, though, he could not escape. He'd leaped back right into one of the monsters, which held him until the tentacle curled around his head.

It only stayed there for a second, then he could feel something shift within it causing the whole limb to change, turning it into an energy solid that slid right through Shadow's head to writhe around and INTO his brain.

Shadow was frozen, all motor control was beyond his reach. He couldn't even SEE anymore. But he could feel the thing, like a wave of thunder blasting into his mind grabbing at things it found of interest. What it didn't like was ignored as it dug into his consciousness.

Shadow tried to fight it off, but he felt like an ant throwing sand grains at some unnamable beast towering over him. The thing didn't approve of the resistance though; it thrust into his being, clawing at thoughts and at the very core of what identified Shadow as a singular self aware person.

Instinct. It was instinct that saved Shadow again, the same instinct that had told him from the beginning that these were things NOT to be messed with. With a sound that imitated a rusty iron door being shut he could feel a barrier forming around him. Bright Chaos Energy repelled the intruding demon and, try as it might, it could not get through the new defense.

Reality came back in a burst of air and light. Suddenly he could see again and the first thing he was greeted with was the grassy ground coming up to meet his snout. The eyeball was ranting above him, audibly upset. The creatures ignored him, gathering around the thing and listening to it talk quickly, they seemed to think he was unconscious.

Shadow didn't do anything to prove them wrong, laying as still as he could. Hey, he'd been playing dead for the last half year, taking the act up a notch wasn't too hard. Besides the intrusion left a blazing ache in his head that was slow to fade. He glanced at the Chaos Emerald, that he'd somehow managed to hold on to, out of the corner of his eye resisting the urge to turn his head to see it better. It's bright glow had faded, as if the Emerald's energy had just been exhausted in a major attack. Well that would explain where the chaos energy defending his mind had come from.

The eyeball barked an order and one of the creatures came up to his prone form and attempted to pry the Emerald out of his hand. The next instant the creature stumbled back screeching, the limb that had reached to grasp the emerald now nothing more then a chard stump. Shadow absently noted that its voice had nothing on the night screecher. The eyeball said something dark. He didn't know exactly what, but Shadow could guess easily enough. Seemed like every language had its set of curses.

"Wake up, Shadow." Hissed the eye as the 'commander' creature kicked him. Oh joy, when'd the thing learn to talk in proper understandable sentences? Maybe he should consider an acting career, what with the very convincing groaning and staggering as he 'woke up,' that or he wasn't fooling anybody and the creatures just let him play at his game.

"Do you know what we are?" The eye asked, once Shadow was up on his feet. The black hedgehog was surrounded again, but slowly he began to draw power from the emerald. He'd just have to blast all of these things into oblivion, though he had to be cautious about gathering the energy or it would notice him the same way it had noticed his Chaos Control, or so he figured at least. He had a feeling that the thing could interrupt his Chaos Spear just as easily as his Chaos Control

As for its question, Shadow was forced to snort to stop himself from saying, "Butt ugly." He didn't think the comment would get him a kind reception, and so far he was still in one piece when most of the monsters around seemed quite desperate to change that. "No." he answered instead.

The eye seemed to find this ridiculously funny, though the mad laughter that emanated from it was anything but pleasant. Shadow revised his opinion, Eggman sounded like a star opera singer in comparison to this thing. The eyeball would definitely be the first to go down he decided. "Too Long.." It finally chuckled.

"Tell me," there was still laughter at the edges of its voice, but now there was a distinctly maliciousness to it, "why can't I…turn your mind?" The creature was obviously not too certain about the wording, but that didn't seem to diminish its mirth at the least.

Shadow just shrugged, he presumed it was talking about whatever it had attempted to do in his head. Yay for being the ultimate life form! Take that Chaos. However the eyeball seemed less then pleased with his lack of response, its happy mood vanished as if somebody had flicked the light switch, not that Shadow really cared. Only a little more energy and he'd blast all these things to kingdom come.

"Are you going to serve us willingly then? We'd make it quite worth your while." Well there was something he hadn't been expecting. Sure, the analytical part of his mind said that it'd be very good to be allied with something so powerful, he had not forgotten that glimpse of eternity he'd seen of the eyeballs chaos energy. But that aside, Shadow danced to nobodies tune but his own, not to mention that his instincts screamed "Bad Shadow, bad!" for even considering the idea. These were NOT allies.

"No thanks." He shook his head no and the attack was instantaneous, and Shadow thanked his lucky start that he'd been preparing chaos energy inside himself. As soon as the attack started felt a force press down on his mind, cutting him of from the Chaos Emerald. What energy he had he sent out in the shape of a Chaos Spear straight at the eye.

Which vanished in a wink with Chaos Control, letting the beast behind it get speared by Shadow's attack. Shadow didn't have time to curse at that, forced to take a jump or be crispy Swiss cheese hedgehog as the rest of the monsters opened fire on his location. He spun mid air, cutting one of the annoying flying things with his spines and kicking another that tried to approach from behind.

He didn't see where the eye was but he clearly heard it yelling a command in its own language. Another flying thing came for his other leg. He didn't see it as the falling body of the one that'd been slashed by his spines was in the way. Thankfully it didn't take any flesh in its sharp toothed beak. Instead it grasped around Shadow's ankle, giving a vicious pull that flipped him mid air. With a crackle of Chaos Energy he felt the ring on his ankle break under its jaw. It didn't bother him too much as he flipped himself again to avoid landing on his back. Rather the ring then his bones.

He was under attack almost immediately. The ground creatures were still shooting at him, and they had spread out now. Worse yet, these things were smarter than Eggman's robots, completely refusing to shoot their own when Shadow dashed between them trying to get them to do each other in.

They were hemming him in again, taking care to keep him away from the tree-line and reducing his area of movement with each attack. Very different from the pre-programmed movement of robots, these things were coordinating and adapting together to take him down.

Trying to create a break in their barrier he dashed for the nearest one of the ground-walking monsters and spin kicked it straight in the head. It's skull caved under the impact and Shadow grimaced at the mess it left behind. That'd be a bitch to get out of his fur later…if there was a later. Another airborne monster dove for him mid-kick. It seemed to be going for his neck so he lifted an arm to block it. The thing's beak closed on his wrist instead and with another crackle of chaos energy he only had two rings left.

The flying monster didn't have the chance to back off before Shadow began to spin with it still somewhat attached to him. The creature sailed away the next second, shredded by hedgehog spines but the ring still firmly clasped in its dead jaws. Shadow's spin took him straight towards the 'commander' creature which attempted to fire a couple shots at him. But the spinning hedgehog proved to fast to strike…until Shadow was right on top of it.

The monster dropped its weapon and lashed out with its hands. And just like that it broke Shadows spin, with each arm holding one of his hands and feet. He had a half second to stare at the creature, and ponder the speed at which it must have moved to grab his limbs mid spin without being sliced for the effort, before Chaos Energy cracked between them and Shadow lost his last two rings to the creature. Shadow struggled in its hold, pulling his free leg up in an attempt to kick it right in the side, when the creature moved forward and solidly head butted him right between eyes.

It let the dazed hedgehog drop at its feet, throwing the remains of the golden rings behind with a disgusted motion. The commander glared down at Shadow who lay spread eagle on the ground before moving away. The eyeball floated into his fading vision, it was laughing again. "Tell what is left of your people," it hissed at him happily, "that the Black Arms have returned to finish what we started."

For the second time that day Shadow lost consciousness.

----------

He'd felt pathetic the last time he'd woken up. Now he felt like crap run over by an eighteen wheeler. With a heavy groan he rolled to his front, away from the bright sunlight that was beating into his eyes from above, and then slowly and cautiously got up on his hands and knees.

It wasn't that he was injured, no, he felt sick. Sicker then he'd ever been before. His stomach did an odd flip as he finally regained his feet. Oh fuck; bad nigh, bad morning, and utterly crappy day. Life just couldn't get any peachier. He staggered forward retrieving the Chaos Emerald from the ground a few feet away from where he'd been laying.

A couple charred monster limbs lay around the jewel's area which gave the hedgehog some grim satisfaction. Obviously the emerald had continued fighting the good fight even after he'd gone out like a light. Sirens in the distance drew his attention, one of the bloody tornadoes had touched down right in the middle of the city and, he realized now, he was right where he'd seen the first make contact at the back of the park.

He shuddered. Each and everyone of those tornadoes must have been a contingent of those monsters, the thought passed with fear driven wildfire through his mind. The idea that there were more of these things really didn't sit well with his already queasy stomach either. Looked like Sonic had had the right of it breaking for the high winds ASAP.

He could hear people approaching, probably investigators heading to inspect the area, and Shadow wanted nothing to do with them. Forcing his legs to stop pretending to be pudding his set off at a fast run.

SLAM!

He could swear that tree hadn't been there only a second before. He could also swear that his snout was about to sue him for all the things it'd been hitting that day. Shaking his head Shadow tried to clear his thinking. It was getting far to disorganized for his comfort.

He set out again, this time running slower, but by the time he reached the area where he'd encountered the first monster he was out of breath and forced to take a break. The logical part of him noted that this was very bad. He had immunities to almost every disease, plague, and sickness on the whole fucking planet. Old Robotnik had made sure of it. There should be nothing that could get him down like this.

Sadly the rest of his mind seemed to be in an odd fog and couldn't quite keep up with the logic. He looked at the Chaos Emerald that was in his hand. It was dull, almost completely life-less. But there was still a slight light coming off it, an odd glassy sort of light, and Shadow fancied that it made the Emerald look like it was crying.

Again he shook his head, he was starting to turn delusional. But before the rest of the logic could catch up, the fog around his head had him leaning against a tree, then sliding down it. His spines left shallow cuts on its bark, and the smell of the resin seemed almost suffocating.

He passed out again, setting a new all time personal record for 'number of times knocked out in a day.'

----------

_There WAS crying. He looked over the wide open and tan plain that stretched before him. All around twisted dark wood forms of what must have once been a great forest clawed from the ground. Between the blackened remnants of trees were the bleached bones of countless people._

And over the whole scene echoed an eerie weeping. Straight ahead of him kneeled a dark maroon hedgehog. Her spines were plastered to her back with blood and she was crying as she picked up bone after bone and placed them back on the ground. She was putting the bodies back together, he realized as he walked up behind her. Putting each bone in the place it would have if the person had been laying there on their back. A long line of already arranged bones stretched from where she worked to far into the horizon.

Shadow looked around at all the bones that still were scattered every which way. It was an endless impossible task she was doing.

"You don't need to end up like this." She sniffled though it was a mystery whether she was talking to him or herself. Bleary, tear reddened eyes blinked at him as she turned around to face him. A purple Chaos Emerald sat on an amethyst chain around her neck. "You shouldn't have to suffer as they have, no one should."

She broke down then falling back to her knees. Her hands came up to cover her face and Shadow saw with revulsion that they were nothing but bleached bone themselves. "How could they, how could they, how could they…" she repeated over and over, rocking back and forth.

Then she lifted her head skyward and let out a horrid screech that Shadow had only ever heard from a distance. He fell to the ground before her, curling up and covering his ears as if he could hide from the sound. There were no gloves on his hands, he noticed then, the shrieking falling into a background noise as he moved his hands in front of his face. There weren't any shoes on his feet either, he realized.

He watched in horror, as slowly, starting at the tips of his toes and fingers, his flesh began to rot and bubble, then drip off leaving only the pearly bones in its wake…

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**Published On:** February 14, 2007  
**Last Updated:** January 25, 2007


	4. Chapter 3: Plague and Madness

Kiraa: Yay, finally the ball starts rolling. Hrm…who told Robotnik where Shadow was, that's a pretty good question. You'll find out by the end of the story. When did Robotnik get Chaos…well one assumes that it occurred when he destroyed the Master Emerald, but you all know what they say about assuming things.

Yeah, Shadow has some messed up dreams, it only gets weirder in this chapter folks. Yup, this chapter is dedicated to the utter delusion and insanity of Shadow's brain though for good reason.

And look! It's Sonic!

On a separate note. WHS really does exist. Sure I 'added' to it to make it big and menacing in the Sonic-verse, but to find out about the real WHS just look up hedgehogs in Wikipedia.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog, or any of the other character from this franchise. They belong to Sega and the people that created them. This is a work of fan-written fiction by Stari Zmaj studios and is in no way being used to make monetary profits.

* * *

_The Second Era of Mobius_

Next to the passing of time, the Second Era is the biggest reason why so little is known off the First.

After the people of the First Era died out two races laid claim on the remnants of their cities and technologies. These two races were the Serpents and the Avians. Neither took well to the other trying to outdo them, and before long the two were fighting a bitter war against each other.

What remnants of the First Era weren't destroyed by the fighting were jealously guarded by each race, which in time began destroying this material to keep the other side from gaining it.

Thus the Second Era is by far the shortest of all the Era's lasting only a bare 2000 years before the Serpents and Avians had managed to decimate each other, and the rest of Mobius, to the point that neither side could keep on fighting any longer.

Because of this war, the great number of lives it took, and the fact that through it almost all the technology of the First Era was lost a great dark age took over Mobius. This dark age was the Third Era of Mobius.

* * *

_Chapter 3: Plague and Madness_

The dream of the maroon hedgehog kept repeating itself over and over, only the setting changed with every repetition. Eventually she stopped talking to him and, silently weeping, kept putting the bones in their proper places.

They moved from the plains to the deserts, to high mountains and underground cities, and once, Shadow could swear, they'd even been underwater. Before long, or maybe an eternity later, she was joined in her work by a blue hedgehog. It wasn't Sonic, this hedgehog's spines were different, with the bright pink tips, and his eyes were a deep honey brown. There was still an odd resemblance between him and Sonic though.

He didn't know when the dream ended, one moment he was sitting in mute shock watching the two hedgehogs work and the flesh drip off his limbs, the next he's looking up at an off-white ceiling with a fan slowly rotating on it.

Oh, and someone was shaking him and trying to get his attention. He blinked several times, not quite able to recall when he'd lost consciousness, or where dream and reality connected and disconnected. Finally his eyes focused on the blue hedgehog hovering over him.

For a moment he thought he was still dreaming but there was no bright pink on this hedgehog's spines. He stared up at Sonic who was giving him a curious look now that he had the black hedgehog's at least seemed awake. Shadow tried to ask a question, something along the lines of 'what the hell's going or,' or 'where the heck am I?' All that came out of his throat was a sound that would've been more natural coming from a frog then a hedgehog.

Sonic raised an eyebrow at him. "Want to try that again?"

Shadow glared at him but eventually did get his mouth to work. Even if all that came out was a choked "What?" Which was rather odd, Shadow didn't FEEL like he was having trouble breathing, nor did his throat hurt, so why was his voice trying to pretend it was crumpled old recycle paper.

Sonic just rolled his eyes, seemingly giving up on waiting for Shadow to say anything coherent. He stood from, Shadow had to turn his head to see, the table that sat only a couple feet from the sofa he was prone on and held a glass of water out to the black hedgehog.

Water….it brought back memories and in a flash he recalled what happened to him only...

Had it been a short while ago or a week, how long had he been out? With a jolt he sat upright, making the rest of the world take a little carousel ride around his head, going 'wheeeeee' all the way. He leaned to the left, against the sofa's back, until the world was done with its tango dance and settled back into place.

Sonic was still holding the glass out to him so he reached a hand up to take..it…

He stared at the gloveless limb that hovered in front of him. He couldn't even feel the hand, it had moved up on instinct alone. The entire thing shook like Jell-O, and when he tried to close his fingers all they did was twitch in the barest response to his command. He couldn't hold the glass even if he had tried.

Ignorance truly was bliss, as soon as he realized the condition of his arm and hand he noticed that his other limbs were going through the same uncontrollable shaking and twitching motions.

It wasn't seizure like at all, more like shivering, but underneath his skin he could FEEL his muscles twitching. As if they couldn't quite make their minds up on whether to cramp up or not.

The glass wasn't being offered to him anymore. "You see?" Sonic asked.

It had been a test? Shadow stared at his twitching hands, almost expecting the flesh to really start dripping from them. "What happened to your rings?" Sonic's voice seemed to fade at the end.

Shadow just shook his head, the fog was rolling over him again. "The Black Arms broke them." He said…

Although whether Sonic heard him or not he didn't know because when he looked up again it was to see the blue hedgehog with pink on is spines.

"_There's no way we can honor our oath in the current situation._" For a second Shadow thought the hedgehog was talking to him, not that he could understand what the other was saying. It was a language that tickled at the back of his head with familiarity, but it ultimately didn't seem to matter because in the next instant he noticed that the other hedgehog was looking right through, instead of at, him.

He didn't actually hear the voice that replied to the statement, but he had a sense of having heard it. He stepped aside so that he wouldn't be in the blue hedgehogs line of sight. It was a bit disconcerting being looked straight at but not being seen. Shadow's traveled across the are behind him. Nothing, there was nobody there.

The blue hedgehog shook his head in reply to whatever had been said. "_It's not that simple._" He felt like he was watching a movie, or play rehearsal…except he only could see on character and a bit of the ground around that characters feet, everything else was covered in a thick grey fog.

The blue hedgehog suddenly stood a little straighter. "_No, sir._" A frown creased his muzzle, and it progressively grew into a snarl as the not quite there voice…voices, continued to speak. "_You can't possibly expect us to do that._" The voices angrily snapped something at him. "_It's suicide! We refuse!_"

Sonic's voice was a low murmur under the other blue hedgehog's angry outburst, and Shadow took to listening to that instead. He turned his head. The sofa was in a living room arrangement. Directly across from him along the opposite wall was a small and dusty TV. Beside the TV a hallway stretched into the rest of the apartment, and from his prone position Shadow could easily see through the cut out in the wall into the Kitchen.

He could also see Sonic talking into the wall mounted phone that sat right by the door-less doorway. "Yeah, they have to be real strong….No, the regular ones just don't cut it, I've tried…Eh, I'll explain later, but can you just do this for me pleeeeaaaaaase….Yeah, I will…_Don't worry_, I'm sure you'll find some once you start looking for 'em…Yeah I know…That's right…Yup, thanks Tails."

There was a quite huff and Shadow looked down to see a little hedgehog playing at his feet. Little…..really little. The urchin was picking up rocks and throwing them into the pond ahead and in general just being very pouty. It was oddly familiar with fur so black that it was almost iridescent and shining all the colors of the rainbow, except for patches along the back of its limbs and spines where it was a dark dark, almost but not quite black.

"What's wrong?" Knowing the answer suddenly seemed very important. The little hedgehog looked at him with big…red eyes. "It's not fair." It whined and Shadow had a sinking feeling. He knew who this was.

"I never got to exist." It was himself, or what he would have looked like if he had ever been a kid. Old Robotnik had never given him the option and…

…long grasses waved in front him. He was in a clear field that was bound by forest on one side and sloped down into a deep river, before sloping back upwards and down again, then up and down repeatedly until it ran into the feet of a mountain range.

The scenery wasn't what attracted his attention though. It was the large lizard like things that plodded along the field in slow steady steps that did. Well, they kind off looked like lizards on one part, but seemed to have been mixed with warthogs somewhere along their evolutionary chain. They pulled at the grass, munching at it with toothless beaks, and dug through the ground with straight tusks.

A rustle and something quite large passed by, and through, Shadow. A giant scorpion, almost as big as the mecha Eggman had created, stalked towards the lizards. Its tail was held low to the ground, and it took the utmost care to go as unnoticed as possible. Its low sitting body easily fitting under the cover of the tall grass.

The giant insect had almost made it right atop one of the lizards when a whooping howl cut across the relative silence. A spear soared high above him and with pin point accuracy imbedded its sharp head between the plates of the scorpions back armor. Blurs ran by Shadow as the scorpion hissed and thrashed frightening the large warthog lizards and sending them running, or at least plodding at a faster rate.

Hedgehogs leaped at the Scorpions back, dodging its stinger which lashed at them with venom at its tip. Again and again the little group of hedgehogs dashed for the monster easily three times their size, sticking spears deep into the cracks between its armor plates. They were fast, not as fast as Sonic and him, but more then speedy enough to dodge the monster scorpion's desperate attempts to save its life.

One hedgehog managed to duck under its large body and deeply imbed their spear in its underbelly. After that the fight was pretty much decided, and eventually the scorpion lay down, not yet dead, but it didn't do anything to stop the fatal blow from being delivered. The hedgehogs cheered, dancing around the dead scorpion in a happy circle. But at a command from one they all fell silent and bowed to the dead monster.

The hedgehog that had given the order was gray-white and obviously battle worn. Many old wounds marked his body, but none were as impressive as the ragged stump of a missing left ear and the scars surrounding and crisscrossing the area like a spider web. A bright green Chaos Emerald hung off a chain of true emeralds around his neck.

The white hedgehog led the rest in a prayer before the corpse and then with a word they were all cheering and whooping again. In prompt order the scorpions body was cut up, the largest part of its exoskeleton was quickly turned into a sled to cart the insides off the animal to…wherever.

Still singing and laughing the hedgehogs began pulling and pushing their kill along back to wherever they had come from with the white hedgehog at the lead. The procession passed right by Shadow's viewing spot, and for a second he though the white hedgehog's green eyes did look straight at him instead of through…

"-didn't do this!" It was dark. The only light came from the kitchen, everything else was in the deep grip of night. Shadow shivered cold and hot in turn and moved his head to blink towards the kitchen. Sonic was on the phone again, but this time he sounded less then happy or pleasant.

"You better not have." He growled into the receiver, and if eyes could kill Shadow felt real sorry for the fridge which was getting a full on assault from Sonic's glare. With a grunt Sonic looked away from the appliance, whatever the person on the other end of the line had said, the blue hedgehog's glare diminished. "That's true…..Don't even joke about that…..No I don't think you could, come to think of it." At this point a vicious smirk crossed his lips. "Aww, did I hit a nerve?...I'm less likely to do so then you…..Funny, hilarious." The smirk was dripping sarcasm like the scorpion's stinger had been venom. There was a long moment of silence as the other person talked. "Don't worry 'bout that, I've already got two more heading your way….Yeah, I'm terrible, you should watch out for me….Like I'd believe that." Sonic gave a heavy sigh into the receiver…

…standing on a cliff overlooking a glorious seaside city. No that wasn't right. The city wasn't seaside, it was ON the ocean. Shadow couldn't tell how the city could float on the water, the buildings and streets seemed to be just short of getting flooded by the waves though its people didn't seem to have any issues at all with the arrangement as they bustled around.

A long elegant bridge connected it to the cliff where Shadow stood. In fact, the whole city was elegant, seeming to have been built from the waves itself, as the water arched into elegant spirals and cones that had been frozen mid-air to serve the inhabitants as streets and buildings.

But there was something dark above the city. The sun was setting behind the buildings and almost hidden by the reddening sphere Shadow could make out a speck that was moving quickly towards water bound metropolis. By the time the sun had completely set the thing was already cloaked by the darkness as much as it had been hidden by the lights glare.

But in that short moment of transition Shadow had been able to identify it as a floating island…for some odd reason the sight of it was foreboding. Maliciousness filled the air. Shadow knew, even as the vision faded, that the beautiful and elegant city would not survive the night.

Fire danced in front of him. Sometimes green, sometimes blue, then pink, then back to normal red as dancers twirled around the flames throwing powders into it that made either the fire or the smoke it gave off turn all sorts of shades and sparkles. The dancers were all hedgehogs, brightly patterned clothes tied around them and bells strung to their spines, hands, and legs. They twirled around the flames dancing and chanting.

And all around the blaze were other hedgehogs, dancing more to their own tune then the professionals before the flames. And everywhere there was laughing and singing. The smell of fermented honey was thick in the air. Shadow saw the white hedgehog again comfortably talking to another white hedgehog, this one a female with fur which was of a much purer and pinker color then the scarred male's.

Shadow got a good look at those scars, he was facing the white-gray hedgehogs left side, and as he talked, Shadow could see that not only was the left side of his face scarred and almost missing an ear, but the eye on that side was glassy, clouded, and blind, and that that his left canine was missing.

Something had really put the hedgehog through the grinder, and the old one still looked like he could kick Shadow's tail at any time of the day.

"Let me go!"

Shadow was trapped, and this setting was far more familiar. Dream self here, aware self there. Old Robotnik seemed to be on his last leg. He looked worn down, and frazzled. He was THIN for crying out loud. He was also preparing an injection which Shadow was pretty sure was just for him. Joy, Christmas had come early.

Not only was he bound, but there were…things attached to his head…and some sticking in. It was quite painful. Dream Shadow was frightened almost witless. The room shook and somewhere the roar of an explosion echoed hollowly. Shadow had a feeling they were underground.

The old man staggered slightly under the quake of the distant impact, but regained his balance far too quickly for Dream Shadow's liking, and approached the bound hedgehog, needle in hand. Dream Shadow tried to edge away from the approaching figure, or at least melt into the table. Neither of which worked.

"What's that for?" Dream Shadow whined, his gaze focused on the needle.

The doctor didn't seem to hear him, far too involved in his own mutterings. "Terrible, horrible. Kill a thousand demons, become a demon." He blinked at Shadow, the question finally registering, though it was too late. The needle was already through Shadow's skin, which had to be weekend by an acid before it could pierce through, and injecting its…whatever its contents were.

"A last shot at redemption. He'll hate me for this enough as is. Really terrible, what I've done. Terrible, terrible."

And he was running through the halls of Ark. Desperately wanting to run faster but not daring too because the little figure that clung to his hand was getting drawn along behind him and could barely keep up with the pace he was setting already. Behind them he could hear the ever approaching steps of booted feet.

He knew, he didn't dare turn around to look, but he knew G.U.N. was catching up. Maria however did dare to glance behind, causing her to stagger, and forcing him to slow his speed even more. "Shadow!" she cried in alarm, but he didn't dare give a response as the black clothed men turned the corner. Only a little further to the escape pods… if they could just keep their lead for a little longer.

"Why didn't you just carry her? You could've gone as fast as you wanted to."

Shadow stopped mid-rant, glaring at Sonic for daring to interrupt him. The blue hedgehog was giving him a curious look, sitting cross legged on the table and looking honestly interested in what Shadow had been saying.

"Because….." Shadow trailed off. Why hadn't he? The dream derailed. He was back in the tan bone field. But the maroon hedgehog wasn't there, only the blue hedgehog sitting in much the same way as Sonic had been. He was turning a skull in his hands.

Shadow stared at it. Nope, not a hedgehog skull, or any other kind of skull he'd seen before. Though that said he hadn't seen all that many bones, never-mind skulls, in his life. It still seemed eerily familiar, though. The blue hedgehog was humming a quiet nonsense tune to himself and, for the first time, Shadow was close enough to see that this hedgehog was quite old too. There was grey around his muzzle and the barest hint of sagging skin around his eyes. Either way he still looked pretty tough for an oldie…except for the bone hands that played with the skull.

Shadow tried to say something to him, but no sound escaped from his lips. He kept trying though, feeling like he was shouting but still there was nothing to be heard from his throat. Finally the blue hedgehog stopped in whatever private game he was playing with the skull to give him a critical look.

"Don't bother," He said in an old and tired voice, it was pitying in all the ways Shadow usually hated to hear others talk to him. "We can't hear those that don't exist."

That was the last thing Shadow could recall clearly after he woke up. From that point on his mind went beyond confused. In one cold swoop he descended into an insanity that refused to be remembered clearly.

There were flashes though. Like waking up in the dark, screaming and frothing at the mouth, to look at the doorway to the room and see Sonic there with wide frightened eyes. And others where he was fighting, or trying to fight, and he knew for a fact that he'd made a pretty descend attempt at taking one of Sonic's ears off in one of his more maddening moments.

There was no longer a border between reality and nightmares. When he ran down the halls of Ark, he was running for real. Or trying to run, but his legs were like butter and only left a bloody trail of peeling flesh behind.

"-tarve at this rate." A whine. Shadow growled, trying to focus on the source of the annoying sound. There was a 'meep' and more hasty discussion. Sibilant whispers at his ear, death clawing towards him. He never even felt his limbs being bound, didn't realize that he truly couldn't move them anymore beyond the lack of control he'd been suffering earlier.

A hand on his jaw forcing his mouth open, another mouth covering his own, forcing something down his throat. POISON! He could feel it burning all the way down, eating at his insides. Melting the flesh off the rest of his body like it had his limbs. He would've fought, imagined that he had.

Nightmares piled on nightmares, there was no escape, no waking up.

White

Shadow fancied that he must be dead…though with all the white it couldn't possibly be hell. Didn't feel like heaven though, too cold and..empty. He collapsed to a non-existent ground in exhaustion. He'd been running for an eternity, it felt like, though he couldn't for the life of him remember what it was from.

It didn't matter, he was dead; whatever he'd been running from it couldn't reach him here.

* * *

The first thing Shadow realized when he woke up was that he was AWAKE. Just the sheer awareness of that seemed almost alien to him. 

The second thing he realized was that he was going to be sick. The black hedgehog rolled over with a grown, something snapping on his arm, right off the edge of the sofa and proceeded to empty his stomach. Somebody, in a burst of ingenious foresight, had put a bowl there, so the floor wasn't privy to his digestive juices. There was a startled cry from somewhere in the room.

He sat back against the sofa when he was finished, trying to steady his breathing as his stomach gave a couple last heaves though there no longer was anything left to heave out. "Erm….Shadow…" The uncertain voice came from his left and Shadow turned his gaze towards it to see a very worried Tails. The fox was making a point of keeping a small step stool between himself and the hedgehog and looked like Shadow just might jump him. Fresh bandages were wrapped around the foxes left arm.

"Are you….alright?" Shadow glared at the fox. Great, he'd just puked his guts out in front of the little beast and it went and asked such an inane question. And this kid was supposed to be a genius?

"Just fine." Shadow growled, as he tried to stand. Much to his disgust he found he had to use the sofa as a support, and that once he did finally manage to get to his feet it was only to lose his balance and fall back onto the furniture. He let out another growl.

Tails, wide eyed, and still looking like Shadow might skin him alive, made a dash for the open window. "SONIC!" he called, leaning out of the window and looking upwards, probably towards the roof Shadow guessed.

"Ha?" came the faint reply from above.

"He's awake and," Tails glanced back to see Shadow sitting up now on the sofa, "sane….I think." Shadow wanted to ask what the heck the little brat meant, but right now his brain was still too busy processing the idea that this place might belong to either Sonic or his tag-along. Heck, he had a hard time figuring out just what his last memory was, never mind other things like…how he'd gotten here, why he felt like crap, why he had rope burns on his limbs….

He stared at his ankles and wrists. Yup, those were definitely rope burns, and where had his gloves and shoes gotten to anyway? There were rings on his wrists and ankles though, where'd those come from? Though memory was still playing hide and seek with him, he was pretty sure his rings were supposed to be MIA or something like that. A twinge on his left arm brought his attention further up the limb to see the point of a needle sticking there. He pulled it out, and then glanced to the little IV drip stand that had at some point of time snuck behind the sofa.

"_Alright_!" Some scrabbling from above and Tails had to quickly remove himself from the window frame as Sonic swung into the apartment from the room above. "Yo, Shadow." Said Sonic, standing there with his cocky little posture, and a cocky little wave, and, of course, his ever present cocky little grin. Shadow wanted to strangle him, preferably with electric barbed wire.

He was also suddenly very aware of the empty spot between his spines that should have held a Chaos Emerald. And again, having been given the right trigger, his mind supplied him with the last couple events that he could remember. Shadow groaned at the onslaught of information, preferring to close his eyes and put a hand to his forehead instead of watching Sonic posturing. "What the hell's going on." He said finally in exasperation.

"Umm…I'll just take care of this stuff." Tails said uncertainly before fetching the pole with its broken IV drip and vomit filled bowl and retreating into the kitchen. Sonic just sat himself down on the table in front of the sofa, still smiling at Shadow. "How much do you remember?"

Shadow glanced at the other hedgehog, pondering for a second what kind of answer to give to that. His last couple memories were anything but coherent. "I remember…getting sick?" It came out more a question then a statement, mostly because the black hedgehog himself didn't know what the heck had happened to him. Especially since now he seemed to be getting better by the second.

Sonic just rolled his eyes, "Understatement of the century, that." Shadow saw that Sonic's right ear looked pretty torn up, like something had tried to chew it right off the blue hedgehog's head. "Seriously, what kind of a hedgehog doesn't keep some spare rings around?"

"Unlike some people, I don't need rings to be powerful." Shadow snarked back, clearly in the superior on this ground. Sonic just stared at him as if he'd just said the ocean was purple and the sky polka dotted. After a long pause of silence Sonic asked very slowly, as if he were talking to a little kid, "Shadow, what are rings for?"

Now it was Shadow's turn to stare. "Power?" What else could they possibly be for, that's what Sonic used them for after all. Said blue hedgehog looked about ready to either burst out laughing or put Shadow's head through a wall. With that one, it was really hard to tell.

In the end it was laughter. Sonic leaned his head back and gave a long mirthless laugh. Shadow growled, he'd never taken well to being at the butt end of jokes, "Just get to the point, faker." Like that, the laughter was gone. Shadow had only ever seen 'serious Sonic' once, and that was when they were both in front of Ark in their super forms, and even back then the idiot had worn that stupid grin.

The grin was gone now. "Do you know what WHS is?" Sonic asked.

"No. Should I?"

A snort, "Of course, every hedgehog HAS to know about it." Sonic sighed. "WHS stands for 'Wobbly Hedgehog Syndrome.' It's pretty much a plague that every hedgehog in the world has to deal with, and that's why all hedgehogs have to wear rings." Sonic's muzzle wrinkled, as he'd just been made privvy of a particularly tasteless and tactless joke of fate.

Shadow blinked. A plague? He glanced down at the rings on his limbs. Well gee, it would have been useful to know all that stuff a little earlier…like in his fight against the Black Arms. Actually, now that he thought back on it, he realized that the monsters had been aiming for his rings in that fight. They had known.

"It starts off real simple first. You lose motor-control of your limbs," Sonic sounded bored now, like he was reading out of a book, "and then progressively lose the feeling in them as well. Once that's done it moves on to rot away your brain. First you lose your ability to maintain consciousness, which quickly moves from there to full blown delirium and onwards to insanity until your pretty much rotted away to a gibbering twitching vegetable. You almost took my ear off, and made a pretty good attempt at using Tails' arm for a chew toy."

"How long dose it usually take?" Shadow asked, still staring at his hands and vividly remembering the dreams in which he'd imagined the flesh dripping off them. He didn't even react to the statement of having harmed either the fox or other hedgehog beyond regretting not having finished the job. He didn't see Sonic shrug in response. "Most hedgehogs take half a year at the very least, usually around five years for the plague to run its full course."

Shadow frowned at the news. "I couldn't have been out for that long." He said, returning his gaze to the blue hedgehog across from him.

"Nope." Sonic grinned at him. "You've been out of it for a month. Your luck really sucks you know. Whatever old Robotnik did to create you let the plague spread like wildfire through ya'. It's also, as we've found out through much trial and error, why you need four rings, when most other hedgehogs can get away with wearing just two or one. Also, don't lose 'em again. The disease will start back right where it left off, so there won't be enough time left to save you ya' a second time round."

Shadow glared at the other hedgehog. He didn't need Sonic telling him just how utterly horrid his luck was, even if it was the truth. That aside, a month was a huge amount of time, he remembered Robotnik and the old codger's new pet…and hadn't those monsters done anything since their attack on him?

"What's happened while I was…sick." Yeah, sick was the best way to go. He had no other word for it.

"Humm. Well, Eggman's been collecting the Chaos Emeralds again, bye the way I saved yours. I'll give it back to ya' later. Anyway, Eggman's got this freaky new monster its made of.." Sonic took a moment to shudder in disgust and revulsion, "water of all things, and its insanely powerful. Can't beat the damn thing."

Shadow suppressed the little 'yay' that chirped up in his head at the idea of getting his Chaos Emerald back. Sonic hadn't answered all his questions. "What about the Black Arms?"

Sonic glanced out the open window, ears twitching to some sound or other that had caught his attention. "The what?"

"The black monster things that came down with those red tornados." Sonic returned his attention to Shadow, giving the black hedgehog a curious look. "You actually saw them? The tornados I mean."

"Yeah, weren't you there?"

Sonic shook his head. "Nope, I was out at Greenhill, one of the few places that didn't get struck that night. But everybody was talking about it when I came back. Lots of weird stuff supposedly happened that night. There were monsters there? You sure you weren't seeing things because you lost your rings?"

Shadow raised the intensity of his glare on Sonic before muttering a, "Never mind." and turning his gaze away. However, something didn't mesh in Sonic's explanations beyond what he thought an obvious lie as to where the hedgehog had been that night.

Something else occurred to Shadow though which had him to once again looking at the other hedgehog, this time more critically. "YOU don't wear any rings."

Sonic gave him a look and grin that clearly screamed 'because I'm better then you' as he gave a simple "Nope." and hopped off the table. He went into the hallway, passed the kitchen where Shadow was sure the little fox brat had been eavesdropping on everything they'd said. He returned only a minute later with Shadow's gloves, shoes, and Chaos Emerald in hand, all three of which the black hedgehog was quite happy to have back.

"By the way, just as a side note," Sonic said, after handing the items off and heading for the kitchen, "My floor is NOT a slut." Shadow was left half gaping at the doorway through which Sonic had vanished. What kinds of things could he possibly have said and done during his delirium?

* * *

"Who found me?" Shadow asked a half hour later as he pulled his shoes back on, slipping the thick leather of the tops under his ankle rings. "I did." Sonic called from the kitchen where he'd with Tails for quite a while now. "Well it did mean that when Eggman went and bragged about having found you alive I could play all high and mighty since I'd already known you were." 

Sonic stepped into the living room with Tails right behind him, "Though, I didn't know if you were going to be so for much longer at that point. We were out looking for suitable rings to save you."

Shadow looked up at the two. They looked like they were ready to leave someplace. He wanted to ask 'Aren't all rings the same?' though it seemed by context that they obviously weren't and he felt like he'd been made fool off enough for the day. He had his stuff back, control of his body functions not being the least of them, and a Chaos Emerald, time to get out of here.

"As for payment…" Sonic trailed off suggestively.

"Payment?" Shadow narrowed his eyes in suspicion, as far as he knew Sonic never asked to be repaid for his 'good deeds.'

The blue hedgehog nodded. "It was killer finding those rings. Took a whole month. That is, a whole month in which Eggman's had the run of the place while we were trying to save your tail. You owe us, and all the people Eggman's hurt. So now your going to come with us and help us find the last couple Chaos Emeralds and catch the old mad."

Shadow responded to Sonic's grin with a full blown glare, Tails wisely retreated out of the immediate line of fire. "I will do no such thing." He said pointedly, with a barely concealed growl.

"Yes you will.." Shadow opened his mouth for a response but was cut off, "Becaaaaaauusse. Robotnik said he beat you up AND stole an Emerald from you. And you being the wonderfully vengeful person you are will track him down and get 'em back. Right?"

Shadow grit his teeth. Glare to grin, he tried to figure what game Sonic was playing at. Of course trying to read Sonic was like trying to read a one way mirror. You can look at it and see nothing but yourself, but you know full well that there's SOMETHING on the other side that can see you clear as day.

And curse that blue idiot for playing off of his vengeful side. Which was actually quite true, he HAD been intending to head after Eggman for some payback. "Fine." He sighed, standing and feeling quite pleased when his legs didn't so much as give an odd out of place jitter.

Sonic gave a cheer and somehow managed to push both him and Tails out of the door, while managing to stay between the two of them, all at the same time. Shadow didn't despair too much at being drafted into the 'Sonic Side Kick Squad,' not when there was many a deadly Eggman trap in the near future to push the blue nuisance into.

As for all the weird things he'd seen in his delirium. He'd deal with all those when he had the time to spare.

* * *

Published On: February 19th, 2007  
Last Updated: June 16, 2007 


	5. Chapter 4: Chaos Match

Kiraa: This chapter was a pain to write. It was just awkward in general while the other two went down on paper smoothly. Oh well, can't win 'em all.

_hums_ Why do hedgehogs need rings and what are rings really? Well…it's a looooooong story, that will eventually be told. If somebody can catch Sonic and tie him down long enough to do the telling._ prods Shadow_

I knew it would come though. Somebody dropped a review asking why I made Shadow so weak. Well, I kinda did and didn't. Don't worry though, Shadow will get his glory, just not right now.

On a separate note, I swear that the new 'Sonic the Hedgehog' game ate my ideas. I started plotting this story a while back, and now along comes this game that has a monster eerily JUST like a monster I invented specifically for this story. Che, they say there's no such thing as an original thought in this world, guess their right. Either way it kind of works for me. An easy way to start tying THAT game into my little Alternate Universe here. _cue ebil laughter_

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog, or any of the other character from this franchise. They belong to Sega and the people that created them. This is a work of fan-written fiction by Stari Zmaj studios and is in no way being used to make monetary profits._  
_

* * *

_The Third Era of Mobius_

The Third Era of Mobius provides very little concrete history for scientist to study due to the fact that so little of its great length is recorded. The skills of reading and writing were only retained by a select few, like religious groups and organizational leaders, and their records are often extremely and heavily biased.

The unique conditions of the Third Era, being an extremely long dark age, has lead to this time period being more well known for all its legends and fantastic stories then anything else. The greatest epics and works of storytelling originate from this era.

Another major impact this era had on future development was the fact that it evened the playing field for all the races. The world was no longer ruled by a select group or race, with the rest having to fend for themselves. Everybody was in the same boat. So when human's initiated the great Renaissance, all the races quickly caught onto the development, benefited, and participated in it.

* * *

_Chapter 4: Chaos Match_

Going out to search for Robotnik/Chaos Emeralds with Sonic and Tails wasn't quite what Shadow had expected it to be. Mainly he'd thought it wouldn't have such a slow start, not that he was complaining..much. The daytime was, for him at least, a horrid time to be active. It also gave him plenty of time to think, and there was a lot that needed to be thought over.

The first 'break' was actually quite fast in coming. A train ride to Metropolis to get back to Tails' workshop to fetch the foxes plane and Chaos Emerald. Of course this made no sense at all to Shadow.

"Why do we need the brat's plane?" Sonic had become a permanent fixture between him and Tails and as far as Shadow was concerned he was quite happy pretending said fox wasn't within his immediate vicinity.

"Becaaaauuuse, we can cover a lot of ground easily in the jet, and the Chaos Emerald will help us find other Emeralds by resonating with them." He resisted the urge to cringe at Sonic's tone of voice. The way the blue hedgehog had spoken, it was as if he'd been talking to someone particularly slow on the uptake.

Shadow didn't bother pointing out that he and Sonic would be faster running, then either a train or an airplane. He also didn't bother mentioning that HE had a Chaos Emerald. If Sonic was going to pretend he didn't, then it was alright with the dark hedgehog.

That didn't mean the train ride was anything but boring. Not only that, but they didn't even ride IN the train. Both hedgehogs took to jumping a free ride as it pulled out of the station in preference of dealing with all the people inside the vehicle. Shadow because he made a point of avoiding the majority of the populace in general, and Sonic because he didn't feel like starting on an impromptu autograph session.

Riding atop the train wasn't all that unpleasant. Not slow enough to make Shadow feel like it was too big a waist of time, but not too fast to be uncomfortable. Sonic almost immediately settled down for a nap, arms behind his head and legs crossed as if he didn't have a care in the world. Shadow made his seat on the opposite side of the same car and used the ride to sort out the piled up series of events.

Firstly there was Eggman and whatever new gig he was running. Shadow was sorely lacking in information on that situation. He knew that the old fool had some great new plan broiling and a monster strong enough to STILL be running around loose even after having encountered the blue hedgehog's hero squad on apparently multiple occasions.

Of course that wasn't the only monster; those Black Arms were a whole other can of worms. Shadow just didn't see the logic behind such a fancy entrance only to vanish right after. And the way the eye had talked, it had definitely implied that they were going to do a lot more then frisk over a random hedgehog that they'd just so happen to come across.

Worst case scenario, though Shadow had no way of judging how bad, would be if they joined forces with Robotnik. An idea slightly supported by the loose resemblance Chaos had to Black Arms.

But what were the Black Arms? Shadow gave a growl, leaning back on his arms to stare at the sky as he tried to piece out some clue from his memories to answer that question. Above, the newest addition to Mobius's sky hung dark black and red even in the bright light of day. The newcomer to the solar system had grown far larger in the sky during his 'sleep.'

Shadow stared at the wandering red planet. Red and black planet, red tornadoes with black (couldn't describe it any other way) chaos energy, red and black creatures, hey it was crazy enough to make sense. By all that was holy, unholy, and in between, he had enough cliches in his life that adding alien invasions to the list wouldn't seem all that much out of place.

"_Tell what is left of your people,that the Black Arms have returned to finish what we started._"

Shadow glanced over to Sonic. He had a funny feeling that possible alien invasions were just important and bad enough to let the other hedgehog know about it. Then again...he was grasping for any string and straw of logic and and it wasn't very likely that even Sonic would believe something that ridiculous. But, the eye had implied that this wasn't their first bid for Mobius...

Alright one problem at a time, Shadow was going to keep his 'alien' ideas to himself until he could scrounge up more info and proof. Which of course left him with the only one other major concern on his mind.

Those dreams, delusions, whatever they were. Shadow pulled out the violet Chaos Emerald from his spines to look at its surface. It was shining brightly in the sunlight and humming ever so slightly with Chaos Energy. The maroon hedgehog in his dreams had been wearing this stone, but there was little to say that the relation was anything more then delusion itself.

In fact, all the strangeness aside, it was the hedgehogs that stood out the most to Shadow. They all struck his instincts as important, in particular the silver-white one. Though he couldn't quite figure out why even as they each made a discordant note in his mind. There was something familiar about them and the more he tried to figure out what the more he was running into a mental wall. The same wall that blocked off most of his memories of ARK.

With a sigh he slipped the Chaos Emerald back between his spines. Too many questions and not enough clues or answers. He could try to psychoanalyze his own dreams, but he'd just end up chasing his own thoughts in circles. He knew that, from experience, and this just added to the mounting feeling of things being ever so far out of his hands.

He was getting picked up by a storm, he recognized the feeling well enough, and unlike the last time when he'd had a goal set in mind (blow up the planet) this time he had no idea where things were going.

He had resolved little by the time the train pulled into Metropolis. And it became quite clear that within the city he wouldn't get to do much more thinking. The place was big, noisy, and, at least within the area that the station was located in, disgustingly filthy and odorous. Shadow and Sonic leaped off the train, before it pulled into the large glass roofed station, to much surprise and pointing from the people that witnessed it.

Neither hedgehog hung around long enough to be cornered by a curious crowd, both vanishing in dashing blurs to the Stations front entrance. There Shadow and Sonic stood to the side of the stairs that led up to the glassy doors. The place was far too crowded for Shadow's liking, though Sonic was having no trouble chatting up some school kids that had noticed him and begged some autographs off the blue hedgehog.

Before long Tails finally appeared atop the stairs calling and waving his hand for Sonic. Unfortunately the foxes appearance was eclipsed by the sound of sirens and a line of Fire Trucks and police cars blazing through the street. Inevitably they caught Sonic's attention far more then Tails could, and before the last wail of the vehicles had faded out the blue hedgehog was gone and chasing after them.

Shadow glanced up at Tails who was staring at the turn in the road beyond which Sonic had vanished. Oh hell no, he was not putting up with this anymore. Following the insanity of Sonic was one thing, but babysitting the other hedgehogs sidekick was a whole other. The black hedgehog also maid his escape, in the opposite direction. Why the heck had he agreed to this anyway? He wasn't going to waste time by waiting for the hero squad any longer, Shadow the hedgehog was quite capable of finding and beating Robotnik on his own.

Half an hour later Shadow was outside Metropolis though not by a lot, and still trying to figure out where to START looking. Alright, so maybe a little more research, and less impulsiveness, would have served the situation better. Truth was, Shadow had just wanted out off the overcrowded place.

But it hadn't all been in vain. Currently he was in the middle of a circular patch of cleared ground, set apart from the surrounding desert landscape by its darker then usual red coloring. A patch that still held a faint echo of the dark chaos energy that had marked the tornadoes a month ago. The area had been well scowered since then, by life, weather, and time, and Shadow could not find any clues as to where the Black Arms, which he was sure would have shown up with this tornado as well, had gotten too.

More markedly, this meant that the arrival of the aliens, if that's what they were, hadn't been restricted to Station Square. Shadow lost himself in pondering this new issue; just how many of the things were there? Supposedly, a planet-full according to his 'alien' theory.

"Hey, Shads!"

"ARGH!" Shadow swung around with a kick, all his fur and spines bristling, but Sonic had already retreated the necessary three feet for the retaliation to miss. God damn it, where'd the blue idiot come from!

Shadow stood glaring and growling, while Sonic just continued on as if he hadn't almost surprised the black hedgehog right out of his fur, though the wicked grin on his face showed that he had fully meant to do so. "Me an' Tails are going to go after Eggman's new flying toy, if you wanna come along you shouldn't disappear like that."

Sonic gestured behind himself with his thumb where Shadow could see the X-Tornado curve skyward over the buildings of Metropolis and then turn toward them. Of all the bad luck, had they bugged him while he was out?

"I don't need your help." Shadow growled, trying to calm his frazzled nerves. Whatever deity existed in this world it really seemed to have it out for him nowadays. He should've heard Sonic coming a mile away, ten feet at the very least even with bad hearing conditions.

"But we already have a pretty good idea where Eggman is. Actually we know exactly where he is, but that's in the details." Oh, now that information was tempting.

"How'd you figure it out so fast." Shadow questioned snidely, easing out of his immediate flight or fight stance slowly. Sonic's grin in the meantime diminished.

"He kidnapped a friend of mine, Amy Rose. Set her hole house a'fire." Huh, so that's what the police cars and fire engines had been about. Shadow continued to glare at the other hedgehog suspiciously. Hello convenient coincidences, this course of events was just too simple.

As if fully aware of Shadow's suspicions Sonic offered him a helpless shrug before nodding back towards the city. "So you coming or not." The rumbling of the approaching X-Tornado as it decelerated and dropped low enough to pick up Sonic was setting the entire ground shaking.

Shadow snorted and stood straight, watching the approaching jet. "Don't think it's out of a sense of pity. Tagging along with you will just get me to Robotnik faster."

The jet was almost atop of them, "I told ya it would, why would I have lied." Sonic leaped, and Shadow followed both hedgehogs landing atop the X-Tornado's wings, the jet immediately beginning a fast ascent to the skies.

----------

Amy slowly opened her eyes only to close them right after as a glaring ceiling light nearly blinded her. Turning her head to the side she opened them more wearily this time. Here gaze traveled across an odd setting. She was apparently in some kind of futuristic room or building. The sofa she was lying on was within a circular indent in the floor, and occupied one half of the circle. Directly in the middle of the indent was a small round Plexiglas table, and even the entire structure of the room was circular. Accordingly the rest of the furnishings matched the theme, bookcases and a table that lined the surrounding wall were curved to fit the shape of the whole room.

She sat up, looking around herself with confusion. Her last memory was running home clutching the Chaos Emerald she'd just found lying obscenely obvious in the park. She'd intended to call Tails or Sonic, but when she had gotten home she'd been ambushed. The pink hedgehog shivered. Mecha Sonic had appeared almost out of nowhere, and her attempts at fighting the monster had been fruitless, the thing had punch straight through the head of her hammer.

It'd also landed a decent hit on her head, which had knocked her out, and now she was in this strange place. Had Mecha brought her here? It didn't seem like Robotnik to take such good care of his prisoners.

"Finally awake, huh?" She turned around, the perfect semi-circle of the room was broken by a cut out in the wall behind the sofa that led into a long hallway. Her surprise was complete when she saw who stood within that doorway now.

"Knuckles!"

----------

The X-Tornado was incredibly fast, even Shadow had to admit to that fact. Easily fast enough to match him or Sonic on foot. And now they were using all that speed to catch up to the large war ship that seemed to putter through the air in comparison. As the distance between the two aircrafts shrank the jet rose above Eggman's craft into a convenient high altitude layer of clouds. Hopefully the cover would give them an element of surprise, though this high up Shadow discovered that it was extremely cold and extremely hard to breath. He resisted to urge to summon up some chaos energy to protect himself. He didn't want to give Robotnik any more warning then was necessary.

Soon enough even the roar of the Tornado's jets was drowned out by the war-ships far larger and louder propulsions. "_You ready_!?" Shadow turned his head at the question. Sonic was on the other wing, crouched down like him and ready to spring, and looking like a kid who'd just been told everyday was his birthday. He didn't bother shouting back a reply, didn't have the chance to one way or the other, as the Tornado dove almost straight down at that point.

They burst out of the clouds, and only a few seconds later were assailed by a wave of defensive fire from the war-ship that was now directly below them. The X-Tornado began to change mid-air, it's jets pulling forward to imitate feet and slow its headlong rush toward the other ship.

Sonic and Shadow didn't bother waiting for it to land though, instead leaping off the wings and arriving on Robotnik's ship via free fall, or by spin dash straight through the metal surface in Shadow's case. As soon as he saw that both hedgehogs had landed safely on the Egg Fort, albeit in two separate locations, Tails transformed the X-Tornado back to its jet form and tried to put some distance between himself and the war machine before it landed a serious hit on him.

----------

"Pathetic." Shadow muttered as he watched another robot fall twelve feet short of laying a single scratch on him. Thus far, the only difficulty that he'd found in this place was actually figuring out which way the bridge, cockpit, or whatever it was called, was. The inside of the war-craft was one giant overgrown maze, and though the robots weren't at all difficult to deal with they were annoying, and at times slightly dangerous, just because of their numbers.

Shadow had landed near the rear of the warship and had since been progressively working his way through its insides in the general direction of the front and upward. Eventually, and inevitably, he'd find the bridge at some point along that route or so he figured.

He turned a corner and was met by yet another mechanic door. He'd blasted through quite a few of the things, and had every intention of doing so now, but as he approached it slid open off its own accord. Beyond the door was not another hall though, instead a large dome ceilinged room greeted him.

Really, it would have taken a retard not to see the trap from a mile away, but then again Shadow was pretty confident that he could handle whatever Robotnik could throw at him. Predictably, as soon as he stepped inside the room the door hissed back shut behind him. Across the way, on the opposite side of the room, was another door and that one, he doubted, he would be allowed to pass through as easily.

More hydraulic hissing drew his attention to the domed ceiling where a panel was pulling back to reveal a grate. Shadow's almost aloof stature changed immediately as he saw the water seep through the opening; he moved into a low battle ready crouch. Sure enough, as the grate closed back up, the water that had spilled out of it began to coalesce and take on the familiar and unwelcome shape of Chaos.

For a few hanging seconds the two foes glared each other down. Well, Shadow glared, Chaos just blinked tiredly at the black hedgehog. Or at least appeared to be blinking, the way a thick layer of water moved over its eyes. Almost in slow motion the monster lifted its arms upward, the intention of whipping them forward at the black hedgehog all too clear.

Of course, being a hedgehog of his caliber, Shadow didn't take too well to 'slow.' The monster's limbs had only just begun to stretch towards him before, in a blur of movement, Shadow was on the beasts right side. In the next instant his foot had landed a solid sideways kick into Chaos' chest.

Shadow had learned from his last encounter with the monster, this time his kick was augmented with the chaos energy drawn from the emerald upon his back. Instead of bouncing his foot aside, the water practically exploded under the impact sending Chaos staggering away from the black hedgehog.

The monster didn't seem quite so tired anymore. It's green eyes were practically bulging out as it regained its balance and its watery body began to reform. Shadow stayed where he was, smirking at the beast all the while. Alright, so the damage he'd done seemed temporary at best, but it was a far cry from how the previous battle had played out.

This second face off ended as abruptly as the first. Shadow moved with blurring speed back to Chaos' side, this time from the opposite direction. Feinting another kick at its chest, he ducked below the taloned left arm it brought up to defend against the blow to sweep, more like blow, out the legs from underneath the monster.

He paused his movement long enough to throw another victorious grin over his shoulder as Chaos fell to the ground, without legs to hold it up any longer, and was rewarded by a gashing blow from its right arm talons sending him rolling across the smooth floor and into the wall with three deep grooves cut into the side of his head. Shadow cursed, quite prolifically, as he scrambled back to his feet.

Although the center of the circular room was smooth and flat, towards the walls the floor angeled downward into a ditch. And within that ditch Shadow crouched now, keeping a weary eye on Chaos, as the monster regrew its legs, while bringing a hand up to inspect his own wounds. Three narrow and short gashes ran along his head just behind and below his left ear. Though small, they were deep and stung like hell.

Chaos rose up on newly formed legs and turned towards the black hedgehog literally bubbling with anger. At that point the fight became a blur of movement from both combatants. Neither dared stand still long enough for risk of getting struck by another heavy blow from the opponent. To this extent Shadow held the advantage, while Chaos only got in glancing scratches and blows everyone of Shadows strikes sent a little more of the monster's body splashing to the floor.

It was when the black hedgehog aimed a kick for the monster's head, after both of its front limbs had been sent splattering away and were only just beginning to reform, that he saw his chance for victory. Chaos, during the course of the fight, would re-assimilate water that had been blown off if given half a second's chance from Shadow. To that extent, the monster held an advantage. All it had to do was wait until Shadow had worn himself out on the offensive, reform, and strike a killing blow.

But when Shadow's kick landed, and blew off Chaos' head, he noticed that the small brain-like organ that had been floating there suddenly dropped into its abdomen. Shadow quickly put A and B together. To control a body made of liquid Chaos needed a core, a nexus, for that control. Even as the water clouded to hide the precious organ from him, Shadow struck out with a punch for its new location. He missed it again, but only barely, and then only because one of Chaos' reformed taloned hands came down for his head and forced him to dodge or have his skull cleaved open.

Shadow skipped away from the monster, then began circling it at a run, looking for the elusive core. Chaos must have realized that Shadow knew its weakness now, as its previously crystal clear liquid body began to take on the appearance of dirtied brown water. The monster had also lost a good foot of height, now about the same size as Shadow himself since much of its former body mass lay scattered around the battlefield.

Shadow's grin returned in full force. Even if Chaos hid its core, if he kept beating on it long enough it would eventually run out of places to hide its brain-thing. Ultimate life form indeed, this battle was Shadow's for the win.

Shadow changed his full blown frontal attack to a hit and run tactic, never striking from the same direction or angel, as he continued to circle the monster and aim at the best places to blow as much of the monster away, in one hit, as possible. Chaos on the other hand could do little against the speeding hedgehog other then defend itself and hope for Shadow to run out of steam. Eventually Chaos stood a full foot shorter then the black hedgehog, cornered into the ditch at the edge of the room, with the only part of its body large enough to hold its core being its chest.

There was no longer a need for him to keep speeding around. Shadow approached Chaos directly. Alright so he was a bit out of breath, more from having to constantly channel chaos energy from a now faltering chaos emerald into his limbs then true physical exhaustion.

A hiss of hydraulics interrupted his victory. Accompanying the sound, the ditch around the room began to fill with water. The room, Shadow realized, had been built specifically to give Chaos this kind of advantage in battle. The monster had purposely let itself be cornered against the wall.

There wasn't much time to react, Shadow delved into the chaos emerald's waning energy, far deeper then he'd dared to before, "Chaos Spear!" He'd been avoiding using his skills as much as possible, not wanting his new emerald to end up as useless as the last one before he could figure out what exactly had gone wrong, was going wrong again. Even as the bolts of chaos energy descended toward the water monster he could feel the core of his emerald waver. Three off the six bolts he'd formed vanished mid flight, the other three struck home into Chaos' chest, and hopefully the monsters core.

Chaos' body completely disintegrated, but not before Shadow caught just a glimpse of the core. The damn beast had expelled the thing before the chaos spears had a chance to impale it. Shadow rushed forward, he could still maybe deliver a final blow before the core had time to reform a new body.

The brain-thing landed in the waters of the built in ditch with a light plop, Shadow jumped after with his fist already pulled back and humming with the light flow of chaos energy that would let him destroy the annoying thing, the only kind of chaos energy the emerald seemed capable of sustaining at that point. In the next instant the chaos emerald tucked between his spines blazed into life and Chaos' upper body emerged like a vengeful tsunami from the ditch. The monsters eyes glowed wrathfully green and Shadow didn't even see its right arm before it backhanded him across the entire room to the opposite wall's ceiling lights.

The lights, and part of the wall, crumpled from the impact, metal and cables falling into the water of the ditch below. Time seemed to slow. Shadow collapsed to his hands and knees, refusing to fall completely even as his head bled from five new gashes and rang like a chapel bell. He lifted his eyes to glare back at Chaos as the monster, now twice the size it had been at the beginning of the battle, moved out of the flowing water at the edge of the room towards him. It wasn't over yet, he thought, as soon as he got his bearings back he'd...

A spark at the corner of his eyes drew his gaze, and between the debris still falling around him, in that suspended moment of time, was the writhing electric form of a thick live wire.

Shadow tried to push himself out of the water, but the blow Chaos had dealt him had been harsh, and not even desperation could get his feet to move properly. The cable splashed into the water and reality resumed its normal pace of movement just in time for Shadow to be fully assaulted by an overwhelming blaze of agony.

* * *

Published on: June 13, 2007

Last Updated: February 22, 2008


	6. Chapter 5: Enemy Victory

**Keiji**: This is being written while a tornado rages outside.  
**Kiraa**: Well, I don't know if you can call it tornado. Swirling, gusting, winds with hail, yes; tornado...not so sure.  
**Keiji**: Point being..that the powers out. No power means no Internet, so I have nothing better to do with my laptop time besides write.  
**Kiraa**: On a completely separate note, we just found out that Shadow's Japanese VA, also does to voice of Ichimaru Gin in Bleach. If you ask me, that's a huge can of cool beans!  
**Keiji**: Meh, still don't like the guy. I'm not much of a 'bad guy' lover.

Anywhoo, this chapter has given me a question I need to ask you. Should I, or should I not, use Japanese honorifics. For the most part I'm asking because there were many times in this chapter I wanted to add 'san' to the characters names to show the level or respect other characters have for them. But I refrained from doing so since I don't use any other Japanese in the story. But I still think it would sound better and more true to the characters if I added it in. So what do you all think. READER OPINION TIME! Drop your thoughts in a review.

**Kiraa**: As a final note, we thought that in this chapter we would finally make it back to mentioning the Black Arms and what their up to, unfortunately Chaos wanted to play some more, and Shadow demanded that we be fair and beat on Sonic a bit. So this chapter was extended in length and the Black Arms stuff will occur in the next Chapter. See ya there folks!

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog, or any of the other character from this franchise. They belong to Sega and the people that created them. This is a work of fan-written fiction by Stari Zmaj studios and is in no way being used to make monetary profits.

* * *

_Electricity can be dangerous. My nephew tried to stick a penny into a plug. Whoever said a penny doesn't go far didn't see him shoot across that floor. I told him he was grounded._  
**Tim Allen (1953 - )**

Chapter 5  
Enemy Victory

SLAM! SLAM! SLAM! SLAM! SLAM! SLAM!

To say that Amy was getting exasperated at the noise would be have been an understatement. If she'd had her hammer she probably would have hit Knuckles upside the head by now, or helped him try to open the main door out of the complex. But she didn't, which meant that she sat on the sofa of the room in which she'd woken listening to the echidna beat away against their only hope of escape.

She tried reading some of the books that could be found resting on the bookshelves of the room, but it was hard to concentrate with the constant noise in the background and she'd quickly given up on that method of passing the time. She'd also gone exploring a little, mostly because she was in desperate need of locating the little girl's room and was not about to ask Knuckles for those kinds of directions. What she found in her wandering was nothing short of the most complex and technologically advanced shelter she had ever seen. And a shelter it must be, there were rooms made to house many people, the common area she'd woken up in was just one of many. She'd also found a set of stairs that led down to some lower levels, but she hadn't dared to explore that far.

SLAM! SLAM! SLAM! SLAM! SLAM! SLAM!

And Knuckles had been wailing at that door the whole time. With a sigh Amy stood from her seat and headed down the hall. She wanted to get out as much as Knuckles, especially after the echidna confirmed that it had been Mecha Sonic that had brought the both of them here, but if they wanted any hope of escape the echidna couldn't let himself get exhausted at the starting line.

The hall eventually split, one path leading further into the complex and the other angling slightly upwards and towards the door that Knuckles was trying to beat into submission. And he was failing miserably at that Amy judged as she turned the last bend of the tilted floor to come upon a section of more flat ground.

The door Knuckles was trying to get through was made of an odd golden material, its color reminded the pink hedgehog distinctly of the rings around her wrists. It was strong too, Knuckles had obviously been punching at it for quite a while before Mecha had brought Amy to this prison and it only showed the barest of scratches for all his efforts.

There was an odd reddish discoloration on the metal that could be seen only for a second before the blow of one fist or another blocked it from view. It took Amy several of Knuckles' punches to realize what it was.

"Knuckles!" her cry of dismay brought the echidna out of whatever 'zone' he'd been in as he startled at the cry and turned a confused face to her. Amy wasn't paying attention to her fellow prison mate's expression at that point, she'd rushed forward and grabbed one of Knuckles' wrists. The echidna wasn't able to hold back on the pained squawk as she ripped the glove off the captured limb to reveal the abused hand underneath.

Even though Knuckles' gloves were heavily protected and made specifically to guard his hands, the wear of his constant punching was showing painfully clearly on the knuckles and fingers of his hand. The skin had been completely rubbed off from his knuckles and some of his fingers were at odd angles that made Amy want to turn away, though all she did was gape in horror. The limb she held shook ever so slightly, the muscles unable to follow the the echidna's command to '_fricking stop twitching and cramping._'

Eventually Amy did find her voice though, quite loudly in fact. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"

Knuckles flinched at the sound, she was right by his side...and ear, and damn if she didn't have one heck of a loud voice at 'quite' times. Despite his annoyance and the fact that Knuckles had actually been doing good, what else would a person call trying to break from their prison, he still in, an odd way, felt like a kid caught with his hands in the proverbial cookie jar. He tried to pull his hand out of Amy's grip, but the pink hedgehog had a tight hold, and this hold was from a girl that regularly wielded a hammer almost twice her size. The only way Knuckles could've gotten away would have been to hurt her, and he was far too honorable and proud to strike a female.

Especially if that female's actions were motivated by concern, no matter how pride-damaging that alone was. Amy glanced at the glove held in her other hand, and at the red stain that had seeped through the clothing's many protective layers and even splattered against the door. "I was trying to open the door." Knuckles muttered as she stared at the red, it was hard to see how much blood there was because of the echidna's fur, but it must have been quite a bit she guessed.

"By trying to cripple yourself?" Her voice was not on the volume of her original outburst but still painfully high. Knuckles frowned at her, unable to put to words his motivations. Speech just wasn't his forte, and he had no way of describing to the girl his desperation to get out of this jail. Not when his last couple memories consisted of the Master Emerald shattering so spectacularly, not when Mecha Sonic showed up every couple days to drop him tidbits of foreboding news. And not when, despite being used to underground places, this 'shelter' brought out the claustrophobe in him. He just couldn't describe the odd desperation to get out, especially when he was for the first time faced with an object that would NOT yield to his strength.

It was a good thing Amy wasn't looking for any explanations though, her gaze was now focused ahead as she marched down the hall dragging a scowling Knuckles behind her, though the echidna only offered token protests. "There's got to be some sort of first aid thing around here, isn't there?" She asked as they passed the first split through which she had walked only minutes earlier.

"Second floor." Knuckles grouched back in reply, causing the pink hedgehog to stop and stare at him. "Second floor, down." he elaborated and Amy's face took on an 'oh!' expression before she was once again pulling him along, though this time with a more distinct goal.

The stairs were surprisingly long and once at the bottom Amy was forced to stop, no longer having any clue of where to go. The second level of the complex was very different from the almost homely look of the first. The walls of the single long hall that stretched ahead of them were of plain gray concrete, with a single simple wooden door set in each one of its sides. One door was close and to the right, a little further down was another door but this one on the left, and far at the end of the hall she could see a third door. She could also see a big hole in the wall right by the stairs, and recognize the tell-tail marks of another of Knuckles' digging attempts. This one had been stopped short by the electric wire that ran right behind the wall and audibly buzzed with the level of voltage that was running through it.

Seeing that she wasn't moving any time soon on her own, Knuckles took the lead, now pulling her along behind him. They headed straight for the far door at the end of the hall which split right in front of the opening, a shorter narrower hallway leading to a fourth darkened door to the right and an even darker path entering a positively gloomy staircase to the left. Ignoring these other paths Knuckles opened the door in front of them and Amy pointedly noted that he used as little of his fingers and as much of his palm as possible to accomplish the task.

She was expecting a storage closet or maybe a room full of supplies, but what was beyond the door was nothing less then a fully equipped three room hospital; first aid kit indeed. Before they cold make another move though, both heard the distinct sounds of metallic feet coming down the stairs and turned to see the form of Mecha Sonic casually step down the stairs and then walk the hall towards them. Amy could hear a deep hateful growl rumbling from the echidna beside her as the robot approached.

Was this it, was Mecha going to kill them now? Maybe they weren't allowed down here or something? Or maybe...

"Have you injured yourself again?" Or maybe he would just ask if Knuckles was okay in his own mechanoid sort of way. The echidna's growl just lowered in pitch as a response. Mecha Sonic seemed to slouch slightly, if he were a real person Amy expected that she might have even heard a sigh come from the robot. "If you keep this up we will run out of medical supplies far in advance of predicted sustainability."

The mecha had stopped to speak only a few feet away from them, but now moved forward again, putting his hands up in a shooing gesture at Knuckles, trying to force the echidna into the medical room. With more bravado then she actually felt, Amy moved in front of the still snarling echidna in a comparatively pathetic attempt at defense. In this narrow hall, with Knuckles injured and her without her hammer, against Mecha Sonic, would have been a pathetically one-sided fight. "What are you going to do?" Despite the poor odds, her voice at least sounded full of confidence and challenge.

Confidence that went completely unnoticed by the robot before her. "The continued health of the targets is prime prerogative." Was his only explanation as one taloned hand shoved her aside heavily, but carefully not forceful enough to cause her to fall, and the other pushed Knuckles through the door and deeper into the room.

The echidna though, regained his footing quickly. He was inside the room, but there still wasn't enough space to allow the mecha to enter. For a long minute the two glared at each other, neither side flinching an inch. Finally though, Knuckles' eyes flicked to the side as he stepped away and allowed the robot to enter. To Amy it looked like this scene had played itself out many times before, with less then pleasant endings for the echidna. She hadn't missed that slight spark of fear as he'd finally stopped snarling and moved aside.

"If you could please go attend to the new guests on the first floor." Mecha Sonic said to her before entering the room and closing the door behind him. The last look Amy got of Knuckles was of a defeated red figure, head bowed and both fists held tight in shame despite the pain that move must have caused the injured limbs. She looked down at her hand that still held the glove she'd ripped off one of those very same limbs as she turned away from the door.

She didn't want to abandon Knuckles, but Mecha Sonic had said he was supposed to 'take care of their health' in so many words, not that she trusted him all that much though. But from the robot's few lines she could glean that this wasn't the first time the robot had been forced to patch Knuckles up so it would be okay, right? But most pressing of all though, as Mecha's last sentence sank in, was the 'new guests' the robot had mentioned.

With the words finally registering past her confusion and shock she sprinted down the hall, up the stairs, and back to the first common quarters by the entry portal. She ran right into the room, not knowing what or who to expect. Inside was a very concerned looking Vanilla the rabbit who looked up at the figure that rushed in with a considerable amount of surprise. In her arms was a sleeping Cream which the older rabbit held tightly to her while a worried Cheese clung to her shoulders.

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Being electrocuted was an odd experience. For either a horrid second, or an even worse eternity, your mind goes blank and white, unable to coordinate its own electric impulses during the sudden overload. While your brain figuratively collapses your muscles spasm without control, incapable of telling the difference between brain commands and the invading electricity. Of course the heart and lungs are muscles as well.

The first thing a person realizes when the electricity fades is the fact that they have to breathe. That they literally have no breath left, they might as well have been punched in the gut several times. As if the lack of lung coordination isn't frightening enough, there is nothing quite like FEELING your heart loose its beat, skip, stop, over-beat, and other frightening things that hearts should NOT do.

When a person comes out of being electrocuted it is to a deep sense of fear and exhaustion, caused by the brains overload. And confusion; it is so difficult to orient yourself when the mind is completely incapable of working properly.

_"That went too far."_

"Actually, that went almost perfectly, minus the accident at the end."

"NO, this is being needlessly cruel! Look! He's not waking up!"

"Aww, the urchin's fine. A little shock now and then never did me any harm, did it?"

"Of course not, you've only lost all your marbles in the process."

"Eh? Why would I want to keep marbles?"

"Silence! The both of you!"

A foot prodded Shadow in his side, once, twice, by three times the foot was kicking not pushing. Shadow groaned and tried to roll away as he opened eyes to see a bleary white world. A figure was leaning over him, and even while he was having trouble grasping what exactly was happening now, he clearly could remember the fight against Chaos. With another groan Shadow closed his eyes and let his weight roll him back onto his stomach. Everything hurt, his whole body was one giant cramp, but the pain wasn't the only thing keeping him down. He felt exhausted, as if he'd just run a year long marathon with no rest breaks. If Chaos wanted to finish him, for that one short moment he didn't have the will to stop him.

"Che, that's it?" That voice sounded suspiciously familiar. As in, blue hedgehog familiar.

"You know what your problem is? You don't put your all into things and you just give up too quickly."

Shadow growled, he was tired and in pain yes, but Sonic had no right to be talking about him like that. What would the blue idiot know. Sitting up more forcefully then he had actually thought he was capable of he turned to snarl some choice words at the blue hedgehog that had been kicking and belittling him.

But there was nobody else in the circular chamber. He was still at the site of the battle, the cable still buzzed in the water not three full feet away from him, the door through which he had entered was shut tight while the opposite one was open. But there was no sign of Chaos in the room. Sitting up he checked his wrists and ankles, the rings were still there dispelling his one semi-valid excuse to be hearing voices. Or maybe it was just a very vivid dream? He rubbed his side and ribs, for a dream that last kick had been pretty real in the pain department. In fact...it still hurt, even now.

Hurts? Wondering he brought his hands up to the jagged gashes Chaos had made during their fight but instead of finding great strips of areas with missing flesh he only found a few sore scratches and cuts. That wasn't right, he could feel the fur around the area matted thick with blood. He knew that he was an unusually fast healer, but not this fast. More pressingly, how had he gotten out of the water anyway?

The black hedgehog stood up, frowning at the ditch and its electric accessory. And then almost nose-dived right back into the dangerous drink as the entire ship rocked with a loud explosion and leaned to one side. Shadow dropped to his hands and knees and did an odd scuttling cockroach impression to escape another dose of the charged waters. He'd rather be 'Shadow the bug' then 'Shadow the roasted hedgehog.'

The ship only took seconds to right itself, but it was more than long enough to kick the black hedgehog's adrenaline production back into gear. As soon as the world was right side up again, Shadow dashed for the hall. It was long, large, and straight, different from the narrow and constantly branching paths he'd been walking through before the battle. But most importantly, it did not have pools of pain inducing water. Shadow guessed that he must be near some sort of major area of the ship, and that Chaos was more then likely up ahead as he could figure no other reasons to make such spacious hallways. Although why the monster hadn't finished him off, again, Shadow couldn't understand.

His right hand reached behind him and pulled out his Chaos Emerald. Its light was far duller then normal, and for reason's incomprehensible to him the chaos energy coming off it was at an all time low. Fear of something like this was why he hadn't blasted away at Chaos with the energy from the very beginning of the fight. But his caution had proved in vain, it seemed, because this Emerald seemed to have also finally kicked the bucket.

There was a crash from up ahead, and the entire ship shuddered again. This was quickly followed by a long roaring screech that Shadow guessed to be Chaos. He couldn't think of anything else that could make such a sound. Putting the Chaos Emerald back between his spines, and the problems of its uselessness and why Chaos had let him keep this one on the back burner, he dashed down the hall. Nothing rose up to challenge him as he ran through the few splits that there were in the path, always following the ever-growing cacophony of combat up ahead. In these sharp turn conditions his hover boots were worth ten times their weight in platinum and gold.

Another explosion caused the ship to shake and lean again, this time the explosion was followed by a blast of air that whistled down the hallway Shadow was in. The sudden change in pressure made his ears pop, but as soon as the ship righted itself he was off again. Up ahead he could see a large opening, the door of which had already been blasted away.

Shadow ran into what looked like a docking bay area. There were smaller, fighter type, planes on one side of the large rooms walls, and its floor could be dropped down to open to the outside world. In fact, that was exactly where the fresh air was coming from. The door, it looked like, had been damaged by the explosion of one of the nearby small planes, the wreckage of which must have fallen through as the bay doors hinges failed entirely and opened the large gap in the floor.

Shadow only had a few seconds to study the scene before he had to duck from a blue blur that flew over him at head level to impact with the wall to his left. The blue form promptly fell to the floor on its hands and knees with a groan and revealed itself to be a slightly worse for wear Sonic. The two hedgehogs were on a catwalk area surrounding the main floor of the bay, and down below, near the large open doors, was Chaos.

Shadow immediately noted a difference though. Four sparks of light glowed within the creatures' body, Chaos Emeralds, and the thing seemed to have multiplied its power by an equivalent number as well. In general it was larger and meaner looking, and it had a rudimentary jellatin bone structure which protected its brain organ thing.

"Where the heck have you been?" Sonic grouched at Shadow as he regained his feet, good thing too because at that point Chaos decided that leaping up to them was a glorious idea. The monster's new, larger, and much heavier body crashed onto the catwalk and the two hedgehogs were forced to dash in opposite directions to avoid its deadly claws. With a wailing groan the metal of the catwalk gave way under the extra pressure sending Chaos falling back to the floor below. Unfortunately the monster grabbed the ends of both sides of the walk-way, pulling even more of the structure down with it.

With the ground disappearing under their feet neither hedgehog had much of a choice but to join the monster on the lower floor. Shadow flipped mid-air and managed to land securely on his feet. He couldn't even feel his earlier pains in the new rush of adrenaline. He also noted happily that Sonic hit head first into one of the standing planes, if Chaos had been on his side he would have cheered.

For a second Chaos looked between the two hedgehogs, deciding ultimately that Sonic made a much better target of opportunity, dazed as the blue hedgehog was. The monster turned towards its victim, leaving its back exposed and Shadow couldn't resist the invitation. Before the creature could even raise a limb to strike at Sonic, who was already scrambling to his legs for a retreat, the black hedgehog had spindashed the monster right into the back of its head. Shadow had pulled what chaos energy he could from the emerald but the creatures new form was more powerful. Instead of blasting straight through its head, as he'd hoped to do, he just bounced off the water. The most his attack seemed to accomplish was forcing the creature to stagger forward a step.

"Doesn't work, Shads." Sonic said, appearing in a blur beside the darker hedgehog as he pulled out of his spindash and landed on his feet again.

"No shit?" Shadow growled, he could see perfectly well that his glorious idea of amplifying physical blows with chaos energy wasn't going to cut it anymore. Those Chaos Emeralds the monster had absorbed were protecting it as much as they were making it stronger, if there was just some way to get the emeralds out... Of course there in lay the problem. To get them out, they'd have to go through the water, water that was now too tough to cut through with their spines.

Sparks drew Shadow's attention to the collapsed catwalk. The falling structure had pulled with it part of the metal wall revealing the many electric wires and cables underneath, some of which were sparking dangerously.

Shadow could be a very vengeful hedgehog.

"Keep it busy!" He ordered before dashing around to the rooms wall and ignoring Sonic's cry of "WHAT?"

Chaos automatically turned to follow the streak of red and black, but was soon pre-occupied by a face full of spinning quills. Just like Shadow, Sonic was bounced back from his spindash, unlike Shadow he was now left to deal with a very angry water monster swiping at him with hands that had claws as big as he was. In the meantime Shadow stuck to the wall choosing to run the long way around and behind Chaos just to be safe. Using the rubble of the collapsed catwalk as a series of stepping stones he was soon at the section of the peeled-away wall. Carefully he took secure hold of the largest severed power cable he could spot, making sure that no way in hell could his hands slip from the protective rubber outside and keeping the severed end aimed away from him.

Sonic by then seemed to have picked up on the general idea as he tried to maneuver Chaos back and closer to the wall. Slipping underneath the monster's legs he dashed for the rubble, Chaos following after with outstretched limbs. Shadow gave a shout of warning, but already the arms had stretched and elongated. One crashed into the rubble at his feet, while the other caught Sonic full in the back throwing him to the ground in a slide that left a bloody smear behind.

Shadow avoided falling into the re-collapsing rubbled by jumping and standing within the hole in the wall. From his vantage point he could see Chaos pause for a second, as if it couldn't believe it actually managed to strike Sonic so easily. The blue hedgehog was using some very choice words as he tried to regain his feet that had Shadow grinning, not everyday a person got to hear mister righteous cuss like a sailor. As Sonic stood Shadow could see that although the other hedgehog's back had been gashed up pretty bad, it hadn't been anything close to a killing blow.

But crippling and bleeding excessively it was, and Chaos could see that too. The creature walked forward with one limb outstretched, probably to finish the job, and in a few steps made it into Shadow's range. The black hedgehog leaped from his perch, landing solidly on the monster's hunched back and plunging the electric cable deep into the watery form.

Thirty seconds later he concluded that his idea should've been thought through better as he once again was recovering from another exceptionally unpleasant electric jolt. This one had literally catapulted him off of chaos with its force, for which he was ultimately glad. The sounds chaos was making made it quite clear that prolonged exposure to that level of electricity rated pretty high on the unpleasantness scale. He was still gazing dazedly upwards when the monster's shrieks ceased with a loud wet thud. A short while later Sonic hobbled into his view.

"And they call me crazy? Congratulations Shadow, I have yet to accomplish electrocuting myself right through my enemies own WATER body. You win the genius award of the year."

"Shut up, don't see you doing any better." Shadow growled getting to his feet slowly and delicately. He was still dazed and moving too fast was disorienting to say the least. Every muscle in his body ached, his hands and feet hurt like hell from electric burns, the cuts on his head had reopened, and he was having the hardest time keeping his breathing regular as it wanted to jump and flicker with the strange beats his heart was making.

"Yeah? Well I don't look like I just got rolled along on a particularly woolly carpet." Sonic snided back and Shadow looked down to see that indeed his fur was all on end, he was sure if he'd had something rubbery on hand it would have oriented towards it. Shadow would've made a snarky retaliatory comment about dieing his fur unhealthy colors like Sonic was doing. Much to his dismay though, he was cut off by a bubbling growl.

Both hedgehogs turned to see Chaos' body first twitch, then slowly stand back to its feet. For a second everybody just observed the situation, none of the fighters had come through the event without serious harm. And then Chaos raised its arms up with an enraged roar, obviously not nearly as bad off or close to defeated as Shadow and Sonic had thought.

"Shit." Sonic commented dryly. Shadow silently agreed.

Chaos grabbed the closest thing at hand, one of the small planes and ironically the same plane Sonic had bumped heads with earlier, and tossed the whole thing at the two hedgehogs, neither of which were up for quick dash escapes. That sure didn't stop them from trying though, and they might really have made it if the open bay doors hadn't been cutting off any escape routes. Luckily the plane landed short of squishing the two who had retreated as close to the open doors as they could get without being sucked out by the wind pressure. Unfortunately the plane chose to explode on impact, the shock wave of the explosion catapulting both Sonic and Shadow out the bay doors and free-falling into the blue skies beyond.

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**Published**: July 09, 2007  
**Last Updated**: March 18, 2008 


	7. Chapter 6: Noxious Peak

**Keiji**: For this chapter I predict...BLACK ARMS! Oh yeah, and I hope you're all keeping track of how many Chaos Emeralds Robotnik's got.

**Kiraa**: This chapter makes me want to laugh evilly. Seriously, if you saw the events in this chapter coming...well you're obviously a genius and too clever for me. But if you didn't see this coming, but it doesn't just seem thrown together, then I consider my job well done. I want to rant on events presented below...but that'd give away stuff. I guess I'll save all the rantage for the reviews, ne?

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog, or any of the other character from this franchise. They belong to Sega and the people that created them. This is a work of fan-written fiction by Stari Zmaj studios and is in no way being used to make monetary profits.

* * *

**Chapter 6**

**Noxious Peak**

_"On the mountains of truth you can never climb in vain: either you will reach a point higher up today, or you will be training your powers so that you will be able to climb higher tomorrow."_

**Friedrich Nietzsche**** (1844 - 1900)**

Under normal circumstances, a fall from a great hight would not be life threatening to either hedgehog. Both were adapt at protecting their bodies with chaos energy, no matter whether a Chaos Emerald was within the vicinity or not. Shadow, despite some rather sever burning and injuries caused on impact, survived falling through the atmosphere back to the solid earth. A fall from the Egg-Fort seemed like a leap form the shortest swimming pool jumping board in comparison.

But then again, he'd gone through the atmosphere and hit the ground in his near indestructible super form, which was not an option at the moment. Rather to be safe then sorry he figured. Fortunately for both hedgehogs Tails had already spotted them and was swinging the X-Tornado around to pick them up. Unfortunately he had to cross the rear of the Egg-Fort to do so, and just as the jet passed the giant war machine it opened up with all its rear facing weaponry.

Shadow fancied he heard Sonic scream something, though the wind of the fall certainly blew away any meaning he could have derived from it. The X-Tornado pulled a sharp turn to get away from the Egg-Fort, no problem it could always take a wide circle and pick up the hedgehogs from a different angle. And just as this assurance passed Shadow's mind one of the Egg-Fort's lasers struck a solid blow to the back of jet, slicing through one engine and moving on forward to strike at the airplanes right wing.

Flames erupted as the jet finally pulled out of range of the Egg-Fort, leaving a long black line through the sky in its wake. There was a light from the jets front, it's Chaos Emerald core coming to life as the jet took to relying on the Emerald's Chaos Energy to stay in the air. Another explosion rocked the jet as the light erupted, and now there were flames licking out from underneath the cockpit. The aircraft flipped twice mid-air as it veered sideways and its nose dipped toward the ground. And in that position it fell like so much hulking metal toward the unforgiving forested ground below.

Shadow cursed under his breath. Really, if you wanted something done right you just had to do it yourself. He reached behind him into his quills and pulled out the violet Chaos Emerald. It's surface was still dull and sheenless, but beggars couldn't be choosy. A cry from above drew his attention to Sonic who seemed to be trying to doggy paddle through the air to reach Shadow now. They were falling pretty fast, and waiting for the jet had already cost them precious seconds.

Sonic was on his own, as far as Shadow was concerned. He mentally reached for the energy of the Chaos Emerald, tugging it out with a lot more force then was usually necessary and having to practically bend his mind backwards to get it to do as he wished. Just as he felt the pulse that was Chaos Control envelop him he also felt a hand grab his foot. Before he could look to see what the sky vanished.

There was a brief moment of vertigo, as he moved through space, wrestling with the energy around him to keep the movement under control. But then the strain on the Chaos Emerald snapped, and Shadow was brought back into the light and sound of the real world a good ten feet above the ground. At the very least he'd managed to slow his descent so that there was in no danger of going ker-splat on impact.

Not that it was much of a comfort when he landed front first. Belly flops on water was one thing, but belly flopping the ground was a whole other. Another figure hit the ground beside Shadow, accompanied by the by a yelp. Shadow lifted his head after half-a-seconds recovery to glare at the blue hedgehog that had so kindly decided to accompany him and maid a safe Chaos Control with a weak Chaos Emerald damn near impossible. He was also deadly determined to ignore his own pain... ignooooore... but damn it hurt.

Sonic for his part didn't care about Shadow's glares. Apparently having landed back first, the blue hedgehog was in his own little world of pain. The roar of the Egg-Fort passing above them had both hedgehogs attention back to more pressing matters quickly enough though. Shadow half expected for the machine to open up with its arsenal and blast them to bits right then and there, but the fortress turned aside, gaining altitude as it moved to cross over the nearby smoke puffing mountain peak on who's foothills Sonic and Shadow had landed.

Shadow scrambled to his feet, fully intending to continue the pursuit on the ground. He was confident that if nothing else he could keep the fort in sight, and something that large would have to set down sometime. But just as he took his first step a sound akin to cracking glass drew his attention to the Chaos Emerald that was still clutched in his hand. Even as he stared at its lifeless surface the jewel grew vines of splits and cracks before completely bursting into shards, and those shards in turn dissolving into nothing more then useless, massless, energy in the air.

For a while Shadow was dumbfounded by the event. All of his experience told him one thing, Chaos Emeralds didn't break. They were items of power that had survived thousands of years of abuse and mistreatment, they were not fragile, they did NOT break, even if you dropped a ten ton solid block of steel on them. And if a Chaos Emerald did shatter, it would probably do so in a massive explosion of its own Chaos Energy, or so he'd always figured...

'Damn it, what's going on?' All the world seemed to have been turned upside down within the matter of a month, which only felt like a couple days to Shadow, and his only chance for answers was puttering over the mountain and getting away it seemed. More determined then ever Shadow took off after the retreating Egg-Fort, if he had to run over the whole mountain then so be it.

But again he was halted before he could take any more then a few steps, and certainly before he had the chance to kick in his own jet shoes, by a shout from behind. "Shadow, wait!" Shadow slid to a halt and turned with his, by now very customary, glare towards Sonic. The blue hedgehog was also on his feet, but he certainly wasn't in a rush, nor did he seem at all disturbed by the sudden breaking of the Chaos Emerald.

"Tails crashed that way." Sonic stated instead, pointing with a finger in the general direction of a large cloud of smoke which was puffing into the sky. Shadow gave the blue hedgehog an incredulous look. "Do you know what happens to jets like that when they crash, there's nothing left worth finding."

"Duh, but Tails would have bailed out before then."

"And I should care, because...?"

"He crashed trying save us!"

"K, so? If the kid's alright he'll catch up on his own. Robotnik's getting away."

Shadow didn't delay any longer, even as Sonic called his name again the black hedgehog was speeding off up the mountain and in pursuit of the Egg-Fort. It wasn't hard going at all, the mountains slope, though rocky and thickly tree grown, was smooth enough to make jetting over its surface quite easy. It was a good mountain for running all things considered, even if it was a volcano. Or so Shadow figured until the ground began to quake.

The entire side of the mountain bucked under Shadows feet, sending the black hedgehog skidding on his hands an knees. Far above, the mountain's top belched out its built up internal pressure, releasing a particularly huge gust of gases and ashes. The black cloud puffed up and out, mushrooming over the peak and surrounding area. It wasn't a long event, but it certainly gave Shadow pause, it was unlikely that the entire mountain would erupt though so it was less then a second after the ground had settled that he was moving up the mountain side again.

400 feet further up all thoughts of pursuit, Chaos Emeralds, and vengeance were wiped from his mind. He'd come across a cave, fully intended to just continue on past it, until he felt the Chaos Energy oozing out of its entrance. Thick, black, it felt like half coagulated blood and muck. Shadow stalled before the cave entrance, clearly recognizing the dark energy that had marked and marred his memories of his last encounter with the Black Arms.

Looking inside he saw that the cave was long, leading in a narrow tunnel into the mountain, and far up ahead in its darkness he cold even make out a degree of light. For a short while he hesitated there. Common sense said that it was generally bad practice to walk inside of an active volcano. Instinct was quite shrilly screaming for him to distance himself from this place as much as possible. And against all that curiosity begged to find out what had become of those monsters that had attacked him. Curiosity was also backed by vengeance, Shadow was ever a sore loser when it came to fights, and something...more.

Cautiously he entered the cave, the black tar-like Chaos Energy latching onto him, making every injury seem more pronounced, more painful. With gritted teeth Shadow pushed onward. The cave really was a mostly straight tunnel, and its later sections looked like they had been dug out in a hurry, large enough for one big Black Arms to fit through, but showing no more work then that. Not even any supports had been put in to keep the path from collapsing.

The light Shadow had seen from the entrance was emanating from the surrounding rocks themselves. Further down the passage and away from the revealing sunlight the black Chaos Energy clung to everything, making the very surfaces of the cave glow a pale, faint, bloody red. That far down, the energy felt like Jello. A thick mass of not quite solid that was hard to breath in and even harder to move through. It weighed on top of Shadow making him hunch to bare its presence and pass on.

"What are you doing?!" The question was whispered though it carried the force of tone that a shout did, much like the one of surprise Shadow gave as he jumped away from the voice that had hissed so close behind him. He turned to see...Sonic. Shadow hadn't realized just how on-edge he was until the blue hedgehog had startled him. His heart was beating hard, his breath came in gasps, and his limbs shook from tension. "You..." he growled unable to get any more out between his surprise, anger, and confusion.

Just how did Sonic do that? People weren't supposed to sneak up on Shadow, that was his job, and they certainly shouldn't be able to do it in the middle of a very echoing and silent cave. Sonic for his part was hunched over as well, his eyes darting every which way as if a monster was liable to jump out any second from behind every dark little corner and cranny.

"What are you doing down here?" he restated his question, Shadow finally gaining back enough of himself to glare at the blue hedgehog. "What's it look like?" he shot back, not sure if he himself had a decent enough answer to Sonic's question.

"Spelunking, but couldn't you have found any nastier places to do it in?"

Shadow stared at Sonic, surprised initially that the blue hedgehog could feel the dark energy that flowed about them. Though that said, even somebody as Chaos Energy retarded as the blue hedgehog's fox sidekick would have been able to not pick up on the general 'ick' feeling of the area, and Sonic was certainly capable of control Chaos Energy enough to enter a super form. And now that he thought about and took stock of his surroundings, that all consuming and pressing feeling of the black energy had lessened with Sonic's appearance. As if it were aversive to his presence.

"I thought you were looking for your heal-clinger."

Sonic frowned at Shadow's new term for his friend, "Tails can take care of himself."

"Oh, and I can't?"

Sonic just looked at Shadow, the frown gone to be replaced by a half smirk. Really, the blue hedgehog's silence was answer enough all its own. With a growl Shadow turned away from Sonic and stubbornly started walking further into the cave, he didn't want to start a fight right here, not if there were Black Arms further in the cavern.

"Where are you going?" Sonic whispered behind him, loath to move any further into the mountain.

"Just follow, you'll see something interesting." Shadow bet they would. Let's see how Sonic would handle the Black Arms. That would teach the blue hedgehog not to make light of Shadow, or call him crazy.

"This is a bad place, and THAT'S a bad idea." Sonic hissed and Shadow had to work hard not to jump in surprise again. The blue hedgehog was now beside him, and his eyes were cast forward but always darting around for any sign of trouble. Shadow watched, and listened, yet even when he was searching for that tell tale sound of movement he could barely hear more then a whisper of fur on fur, and that was only when the cave narrowed forcing the two hedgehog's closer together. There was no sound to mark the rise and fall of Sonic's feet, not even the blue hedgehog's breathing was audible. If Shadow didn't regularly glance to his side, he might have thought that Sonic wasn't there at all.

It was disconcerting to say the least, especially when one counted in the fact that Sonic was injured and shouldn't, by all accounts, be able to move as he normally would. Shadow gave the gashes along the other hedgehog's back an inquiring look. They'd seemed to have stopped bleeding, though it was hard to tell much more then that in the darkness.

The air around them got increasingly thicker and hotter, the tunnel narrower, as they proceeded on a steady pace downward. The only thing that was going up was the level of light and the amount of resistance put forth by the black Chaos Energy. Just as the narrow cave began to widen out into a large brightly red lit cavern though, the two hedgehogs hit a proverbial wall.

Well, they didn't hit it as much as sensed its presence right ahead. Sonic had stopped a couple feet short of it, but Shadow had dared to go as far up to the wall as he could. Both hedgehogs were in shock at the site before them. As Shadow had predicted, the cave was full of Black Arms, though not singularly them as a sizable number of animals and mobians could also be seen, which perhaps wasn't all that surprising. The one thing Shadow hadn't counted on was all of them being so...dead.

The cavern ahead was carved into bridges and platforms, magma bubbling audibly and visibly underneath the rock formations. And every available flat surface was covered in bodies. Even as shadow watched, one platform gave way under the magma's heat and collapsed into the liquid rock, spilling its macabre cargo into the pool of red where the bodies burst into flame before being consumed entirely. As this happened a sickening wave moved through the black Chaos Energy that surrounded the entire area, the invisible undulating mass shifting and growing.

Shadow looked upward, his eyes following the stacks of rocky platforms that climbed the mountain's insides ever upward where they disappeared into blackness. He had little doubt that those other platforms were similarly decorated to the ones stretched before him. He had no proof of this, but instinct told him the grizzly scene was the same throughout.

He raised a hand and moved it forward. He could sense the barrier just ahead, like the surface of a bubble, barely there and easy to pass through. But before he could push his limb through, it was grabbed viciously by Sonic as the blue hedgehog dragged him away from the imperceptible edge. "Are you insane!" he hissed almost directly into Shadow's face even though there really didn't seem to be a reason or need to be quiet and not shout anymore.

To make his point Sonic kicked a loose rock into the cavern, it passed through the bubble surface barrier letting out a gush of superheated air that had both hedgehogs stepping even further away from the cavern entrance. Right before them the relatively reddish stone turned dark and black as it was broiled in the heat of the cavern. Shadow unconsciously tightened the hand that had almost passed into that heat into a fist.

So why did he still feel like trying to pass through the barrier?

"We're leaving." It was a deadpan order from Sonic, the blue hedgehog holding tight to Shadow's arm and pulling him back the way they had come. Shadow snarled and tried to pull out of Sonic's grip, his mind felt foggy and he still felt like he had to enter the cavern. Sonic gave the black hedgehog a strange look before giving a vicious tug on Shadows arm, causing the other to stumble forward at which point he shoved him quite roughly ahead and against the cave wall.

The rock was hot and sharp, burning and cutting at Shadow in turn. The pain was immediate and clear, overpowering the fog on his mind, while Sonic continued to push him froward from behind. The pace of their retreat increased bursting into a run when the mountain shook around them and they heard the magma in the cavern gush and rise. Far above they could here another split running through the mountain and more gas and ashes be released from its top. All the noise seemed to echo eerily in the dead cavern, like a beast that had just been denied a particularly tasty meal.

They didn't stop until they were back in the open and a good couple yards from the cave entrance. Sonic collapsed against a tree, leaving fresh blood on its bark, while Shadow just stood aimlessly nearby. Something had wanted them, he thought, turning slowly to look back up at the cave entrance, wanted him at least and been very adamant about it. Since he'd gotten close to and completely focused on investigating that opening he'd been in its trap. He wondered how many other caves there were around here, how many more held the same luring snare.

A shiver ran through him, he'd have walked right into his death more then likely if he hadn't been stopped. His gaze turned to Sonic. The blue hedgehog was busy trying to look over his shoulder at his reopened wounds and muttering under his breath, apparently undisturbed by what they had just seen or what had almost happened. Somehow this seemed completely out of place to Shadow, or maybe it was his own loss of control and confusion that spawned the feeling.

"Those were the Black Arms." he said somewhat lamely, gesturing with the back of his hand at the cave, and feeling all the wile that this was somehow just another one of his delusion induced dreams. Maybe he'd been knocked out when he landed and none of this had actually happened.

"Looks like something already took care of them then." Sonic said, giving up on twisting his neck to impossible angles and instead directing a frown back at the cave. He seamed to shiver slightly before turning away from the place with a sick look which was erased the next instant as the one way mirror barrier fell shut behind his eyes. He began a slow, for Sonic at least, walk down the mountain. Finally, that was too much for Shadow. Could the blue hedgehog be any less concerned or bothered about this.

"That's it!?" he exclaimed, rushing to catch up with the blue hedgehog, and by force of will ignoring the bright red gashes that were so clearly visible now along Sonic's back. They didn't seem as deep as he'd thought them at first anyway.

"What's it?" Sonic turned his head to give Shadow an honestly curious look. Or it might have been honest if the blue hedgehog's eyes hadn't returned to being is unreadable as ever.

Shadow had to take a second to really gather his thoughts. Words and speaking wasn't something he did much off, and when things seemed so out of balance that just made things doubly as hard. "We just saw no less then a couple hundred corpses, most of them from an alien race-"

"They're aliens?" Sonic interrupted but Shadow just kept right on going.

"-in a place that feels like someone turned tar into Chaos Energy,-"

"Very poeticaly descriptive."

"-and before all this you saw a Chaos Emerald shatter,-"

"Actually, that was probably a fake."

"-and all you do is...A fake?"

"Yup, fake. Not real. Man made, if you count Eggman as a man instead of an egg anyway. And fakes don't take too well to heavy use, they break. Real Chaos Emeralds don't break."

Shadow stopped in his tracks for a second while Sonic kept right on walking, though it didn't take long for the black hedgehog to be right back at the blue one's side. "But I stole that thing out of the museum." There, it was out, and Shadow really didn't care what Sonic did with the revelation.

Which was apparently no revelation at all. "Duh, you think they'd keep a real Chaos Emerald in the museum after the first one you stole? You think I'd have given it back if it had been real?"

With no verbal ground left to stand on in that subject, Shadow jumped ship. "And all those bodies?"

"Nothing I can do about that."

"You could stop it."

"How? I'm not a scientist, the research and puzzle solving's Tails' gig."

Again, no verbal ground to stand on. "So thats it."

"Yup, that's it." Sonic nodded, picking up his pace.

"Really?" Shadow said to the air, not all that eager to remain with the other hedgehog for any longer. Being with Sonic was akin to entering the twilight zone. 'Forsake your sanity all ye lost ones and beware of low flying chilly dogs,' that's what the warning sign would say.

"Come on, if we don't pick up the pace, Tails'll get back to the city before we do." Having put both of their speed prides on stake now, the blue hedgehog took off. Shadow shook his head again, things just weren't clicking into place the way they were. Besides, wasn't Sonic injured? He really shouldn't run like that with his injuries and Shadow should probably cut all ties and connections here and now for that matter. It'd be safer for his mental health in the long run.

And yet his feet fell into a run, and then a skate, as he followed Sonic. No, that's wasn't right, he was just heading in the same direction as Sonic. There, that line of thinking he could accept of himself. Once they reached the city it'd be good bye and separate ways.

Behind them the mountain rumbled and spewed thick black smoke into the sky and even further beyond that, the azure green eyes of Chaos viewed the these eruptions as the Egg-Fort continued on its way. The knowing light of familiarity was erased from the beasts eyes though, as Robotnik's voice cut across the intercom and called it back to the upper decks. The watery beast turned away from what it knew so well, it had a new master to follow. One that relied and trusted on it to do its new job properly and faithfully.**  
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**Profile: Sonic the Hedgehog**

If his erratic behavior, flip flopping mood, and general life style didn't give it away, Sonic is one insane hedgehog. Really, friends like Tails might stand up for the hedgehog, but even they admit that the hedgehog is not quite as mentally stable as most people. There could be quite a few causes.

The most obvious explanation to come to mind are his rings, or lack thereof. Sonic is known to use rings, though its certainly in a way far different and removed from how other beings employ the mysterious objects. He doesn't ware them, instead he uses them much like Shadow uses his Chaos Emeralds, to amplify his skills and strengths.

Does that mean that Sonic's madness stems from the plague and his suffering, if not from the physically degenerative aspects of it, the mentally deteriorating consequences? In some ways, yes, Sonic's instability can be almost directly linked to the plague, but that's neither here or there, nor is it the time to reveal such things.

More importantly to identifying Sonic and his mentality is the very thing that sets him apart from the rest of this world. No one can deny that Sonic can go at impossible speeds, and do it almost easily. And anyone that has ever had the experience of moving at those speeds in something like a vehicle will attest to the tunnel vision hat is inevitably suffered. For a person to run at above sonic speeds, their mind has to be quick to process visual input and then move the body to avoid obstacles.

When it comes down to it, Sonic is more along the lines of insane that a genius would posses. His own mind just sometimes moves faster then others, or he himself, can keep up at times. His erratic behavior and mood are just facets of this fact, thus the existence of his many dualities. He's lazy but hates having to wait for people, he's very much in control of his person but he often enough ends up tripping over himself literally and metaphorically, he is almost painfully kind and yet at times aloofly cold and impersonal, he often has a lot to say but little patience to stand around and actually take the time of day to say it. The world must seem like a very slow place to Sonic the Hedgehog.

There is much more that could be said in regards to Sonic, but such topics will have to be postponed till a later time.

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**Published on: September 25, 2007**


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